


Ultraviolence

by GenerallyHuxurious (GallifreyanOmnishambles)



Series: The Korova Milkbar [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Abuse, Abuse of Authority, Anal Plug, Anal Sex, Bad BDSM Etiquette, Bad News For The Light Side, Barebacking, Berserker Kylo, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Torture, Bloodplay, Blow Jobs, Body Horror, Brainmatter Everywhere, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Decapitation, Delusions, Denial of Feelings, Discussion of Pregnancy, Disembowelment, Dismemberment, Dom/sub Undertones, Drug Use, Dubious Consent, Emperor Hux, Execution, Eye Trauma, Fantasizing, Gore, Head Injury, Hux is Not Nice, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Interrogation, Kidnapping, Knifeplay, M/M, Major Character Injury, Major Character Undeath, Manipulation, Masturbation in Shower, Mention of Forced Cannibalism, Minor Character Death, Multiple Orgasms, Murder, Needles, Obsession, Oral Sex, Orgasm Delay/Denial, PIV Sex, Psychological Torture, Ritual Sex, Rough Sex, Sadism, Serious Injuries, Sexist Language, Sexual Coercion, Sexual Repression, Sexual Violence, Shooting, Slavery, Slut Shaming, Smoking, Spinal Trauma, Stormtrooper Culture, Tatooine Slave Culture, Telepathy, Torture, Violence, Visceral, Voyeurism, Xenophilia Mention, conception kink, firing squad - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-05-28 02:20:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6311275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanOmnishambles/pseuds/GenerallyHuxurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo Ren is an angry repressed celibate who loathes Auren Hux' weak nature and habit of taking physical advantage of his crew. Until he discovers the General's other interest. The man is a dedicated disciple of ultraviolence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ocktorok](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocktorok/gifts).



> This was a thought experiment/challenge after I spent too much time writing fluff. The aim was the make both characters as actively wicked as possible. 
> 
> Kylo Ren is a very unreliable narrator. I wouldn't believe a word he says if I were you.

Kylo Ren had no respect for General Auren Hux. A small man, for all that they were almost the same height. A tiny pathetic man who wore his greatcoat over his shoulders to stalk about his ship and the corridors of his super-weapon, the padded reinforced shoulders and sweeping coat tails meant to make him seem bigger than his actual size. Even on the bridge or in the Starkiller command centre- where the coat must be discarded, hung pretentiously by the blast doors- the man is always in full parade dress. Shoulders carefully augmented, waist nipped in tight, doing his best to look like there was a real physique under all that military regalia. Ren doubted it, he rarely saw the man anywhere but the bridge, his office or on one of his seemingly endless inspections. 

Never had Kylo known a First Order officer so obsessed with the minutiae of their commands. There was always some form or document he must complete- things other commanding officers would have left to subordinates, or else some element of the ship or the weapon he must inspect personally rather than trusting his underlings to do their jobs. Kylo felt it was an insult to the Supreme Leader's finely honed war machine that Hux must obsess over every detail, as if he were anything more than another tool in Snoke's arsenal. 

Of course there was another reason Hux insisted on all those inspections. One that Ren discovered in his first week aboard the Finalizer and yet another reason for the Knight's profound contempt for the General. Hux was fucking his crew. Kylo had known that the First Order was filled with depraved, perverted individuals. He'd been warned by Snoke so many times before he'd ever set foot on one of their ships. They sought carnal pleasures for the sake of the sin itself, forbidden to breed during active service they rutted for no purpose beyond debasing themselves. 

Ren was pure- had kept himself so for thirty years and would continue to do so for the rest of his existence. Attachments, love, affection, desire, physical pleasure, these were all paths to weakness. Darth Vader had fallen because he'd been foolish enough to lay with a woman, had impregnated her and then permitted her to keep them when it would have been far preferable to cut them out of her, to end them all. Vader's son had been his ultimate undoing when he should not have been allowed to live in the first place. 

When he'd first arrived on the Finalizer Ren had found the minds of the crew buzzing with the same petty jealousy, underhand scheming, and randomised lust that he'd seen on the other ships he'd had the horror to serve aboard. The original hint that something was not quite right with the crew had come when the morning propaganda message had been played. 

Ren was used to these, had heard them on every ship and in every First Order controlled street. Hux would bark, rant, and rave for five to twenty minutes whilst the majority of the crew tried to get on with their work as best they could. On some ships the most senior officers would take notice, standing rigidly on the bridge, filled with pride and nostalgia as their miniature attack dog yapped and whined about past and future glories. Ren generally did his best to drown them out. He'd been tired of listening to the man's voice three years before he'd ever actually met him. 

That first morning he'd been in the docking bay control room, trying to arrange proper care for his shuttle when the chimes had rung and every single officer had stopped. The majority of the stormtroopers had continued about their business on the hanger floor, though their Captains had slowed or stopped as the voice began. Kylo supposed that it was much more important to be seen to respect the voice of their pathetic leader when the man himself was on board the ship. He probably held surprise inspections during the broadcasts to ensure that everyone was suitably impressed with his oration. 

As he would have expected, many of the men and women around him had simply looked patriotic or nostalgic as the voice ranted on about retaking the core worlds from the loathsome Republic. But others confused him. They had begun to lick their lips, to fidget, or flush, especially when the voice had become more strident. That had been disturbing enough, but even through the filters of his mask Ren had also smelled the faint musk of arousal. Glancing down he'd noticed that the disturbingly young looking Petty Officer Thanisson had developed a partial erection. The Knight had taken his leave and stalked through the ship, growing more disgusted as he encountered other clusters of officers and found that almost every group one or two who seemed similarly preoccupied. 

Many of the officers were broadcasting their thoughts quite freely and Ren felt his skin crawl as he saw the same fantasies over and over again. Officers of every rank and gender imagining themselves debased between the General's wide spread knees, swallowing him down, or pressed against desks or bulkheads to be violated. Thankfully, by the time he'd reached the bridge the propaganda had ended and most of the crew there had been engaged in normal thought patterns.

Hux had been waiting by the viewports. The fact that he had not met Ren in the docking bay with a retinue was a studied insult. Clearly, the man had not appreciated the introduction of another equally powerful individual into his domain. 

The General was not as Kylo had expected. In commanding this ship as well as designing and supervising the Starkiller project, General Hux was stretched thin. Given that he was also nominal head of both the Naval and Army branches of the First Order- answerable only to Snoke- Kylo had been expecting a man near collapse with exhaustion. That was not what he found.

Auren Hux stood like there was a rod running up his spine, all stiff authority and discomforted malice. Every part of him was slim, from hollow cheeks to the delicate bones of his hands- there was hardly any person there at all. From the voice in the announcements he'd thought the General would be significantly shorter than himself- that there were only two inches between them was a surprise. Ren found it interesting, in a sickening way, that whilst the lustful officers he'd encountered all pictured Hux with ocean green eyes and plush lips made for sinful acts, the real man had eyes like icebergs and an almost permanent look of disgust. His upper lip was always curled ready to break into a sneer any moment, almost as if the man smelled something unpleasant.

That initial meeting had not gone well. Kylo had tried to use his physical presence to intimidate the man with the ridiculous ginger hair. The General had not backed down, even when Kylo had invaded his space to the point that he was forced to cross his eyes to stay focused on Ren's visor. Kylo had attempted to access the man's mind, to take enough information that he might influence Hux's decisions, only to encounter the image of a sealed box- a mind control avoidance technique taught only by Snoke himself. The Supreme Leader had saddled him with a co-commander he could not control.

Hux had refused to change the ship's course at Kylo's command, rightly guessing that Ren had no particular orders just yet and had requested the course correction solely to demonstrate his authority. The fool had actually threatened to go to Snoke himself to complain, insisting that his existing orders should take priority over the Knight's whims.

Disgusted and frustrated by this show of defiance, Ren had stormed off the bridge, only realising several minutes later than he had not been assigned any quarters. Too irritated to give that disrespectful cretin any satisfaction, the nights of that first week had been spent sleeping on the harsh metal grating that formed the floor of his shuttle. He waited until the morning announcements were complete before emerging, to avoid the bizarre reactions of the crew whilst the General's voice droned through the speakers.

On the sixth day he'd been summoned to the bridge earlier than usual. Hux pretended to have finally recognised the oversight and, after a most insincere apology, he'd arranged for one of the female crew members to guide Kylo to his rooms. The General had cited the Finalizer's unique design as the reason for the guide but Ren suspected it was in some way an insult.

As they walked through the corridors Kylo noticed that despite leaving Hux behind on the bridge he could still faintly smell the man's unique scent. It was when the propaganda began to play, as they descended a set of stairs that Kylo noticed the smell of cloves and salt increasing. Breathing deeply he finally recognise the origin. Behind the mask of his helmet his face twisted into a disgusted grimace as bile rose in his throat. The woman walking beside him stank of Hux because his seed was leaking from her, barely two hours old. The images running through her head of rutting with a sweat soaked, green eyed General weren't fantasies- they were memories. How many of the crew had he had? Ren had known commanders who were willing to use the occasional member of their crew, but that so many would willingly submit to such a man as Auren Hux? And that they would wish for it to happen again?

Ren found the concept too disgraceful to consider. He wondered if Snoke had told Hux about his exceptional sense of smell before he'd been transferred to the Finalizer. Was this woman a deliberate taunt or merely a coincidence? He dismissed her as soon as the door to his private quarters were opened. He did not think about the images that had appeared in her head as she heard Hux speaking about the First Order's recent successes. He did not linger on the snap on those sharp boned hips into the meat of her thighs. He did not consider the exquisite pain as the General's teeth sank into her shoulder. He would not compare the length and girth of the other man in the depraved act of placing his cock into her mouth even as he withdrew his own from his robes. He did not focus on the sublime stretch as Hux entered her cunt for the first time whilst he frantically dragged his fist over his own cock. He did not reach a shameful heart-stopping completion as he pictured Hux biting his lower lip as he came or as he experienced the pulses of hot seed as she had felt them. He did shamefully wipe the evidence of his weakness from the sink, and he did administer sixteen lashes of the cat to his own back as punishment for his failure.

\-----

He had been on board the Finalizer for three weeks, alternately tormented and intrigued by the clamouring minds around him. Ren's back ached constantly, the skin a network of bloody wounds. He'd been bored and frustrated by turns, tied to the flagship and unable to roam, until finally his unique skills were required. 

A freighter loaded with vital First Order resources had vanished. The likely perpetrators traced to a planet with extremely hostile terrain. Kylo was tasked with capturing them so the cargo could be traced. Despite Ren's Force abilities they should be brought back to the Finalizer for interrogation. 

The hunt had been a good one. They'd ditched their transport in a heavily forested area, the climate humid to the point of producing almost permanent mists. No doubt they had thought this was provide them with cover, that their knowledge of the landscape would help them move quickly whilst they pursuers were hindered by half hidden pitfalls. Kylo didn't need to use his vision to track their noisy minds. The Knight hadn't bothered to land his ship, he'd had the pilot hover over the canopy so he could leap into the tree tops. There was no point in following them at ground level when the ancient trees could easily support his weight and would provide fewer hinderances. They didn't have a chance of outrunning him. But he'd still take his time to capture them. 

There had been twelve suspects when he first started tracking them, ranging in attitude from arrogance to fear. The arrogant ones had been the easiest- they wandered away from the group, lingering when they should have kept moving. Two he'd killed in the first few hours. As the newest additions to the group, they'd known little of any value about their comrades and nothing about the freighter. Still, their sudden disappearance fuelled the fear in the others.

There was no time for in-depth interrogation with so many individuals to round up unassisted, so when Kylo had sensed that the next three knew more he'd bound them, leaving them hanging in the trees to retrieve later. Which left seven- the apparent leader of the party and the six most terrified of their number. They'd grown more nervous as they'd watched their compatriots vanish one by one over several days; unaware that their hunter was subtly herded them towards a trap. He'd identified a relatively empty clearing close to a cliff edge when he'd made his initial pass over the area. It was ideal for a trooper assisted ambush. 

That night he'd tormented them with half heard noises, intrusive thoughts and inexplicably moving objects. Just before sunrise he'd struck, storming through the camp and bodily dragged away their most vulnerable member. Sleep deprived, exhausted, and scared out of their minds, they'd unthinkingly followed the man's screaming into the open space. Half blinded by the unexpected sunlight they'd stumbled disorientated into the arms of his waiting stormtroopers. He'd been compelled to snap his own captive's neck when the moron refused to stop shrieking but Kylo was certain it was no great loss. He'd still had nine of the suspects in custody and no escapees.

Although, when he lead his shuttle back to the spots where he'd deposited his earlier catches, he had to revise his number of detainees down to eight. Well, almost eight. He'd forgotten to factor in local wildlife, an oversight he often made thanks to his years on Snoke's barren moon. One man had lost most of an arm to scavengers, but he would most likely survive. The second captive was catatonic but physically unharmed, Ren would have no problem accessing her mind. There was very little left of the third- part of a foot and some internal organs. Kylo would try to remember next time.

Back on the Finalizer he had the prisoners dragged together into one of the smaller cargo holds off the main docking bay. Hux had said he wanted to see them together, to assess their group dynamics before they were separated for interrogation. Yet another scenario where the grossly under-qualified General felt the need to interfere with the roles of his crew. What use was there in a soft, perverse bureaucrat like Hux getting involved in something better left to those who really understood pain. Though Kylo had seen the First Order's interrogation chambers on other ships- given the wide array of chemicals on hand they clearly favoured a more mind altering approach.

Ren would far rather interrogate them himself. He'd arranged them in two lines- three in front, five behind- all bound hands to ankles in a kneeling position. Placing their leader at the centre of the first row would ensure that he would be the focus of the General's attention whilst stole unable to see any of this own men. He'd been waiting half an hour, when a door opened somewhere at the other end of the cargo bay. The prisoners tried to turn their heads towards the noise, the one missing the arm swaying wildly. Kylo Force compelled them to look forward. Several of their number started sobbing at the pain of his grip. He grinned beneath the mask, closing his fist and cutting off the noise before releasing them. They learned quickly, no one moved as the footsteps drew closer.

Hux was striding through the dimly lit space, coat billowing out from his shoulders, a pair of stormtroopers marching at his heels. Ren sneered, he'd expected the General to use the main doors behind him. Now his presentation was ruined. He didn't care to impress the worthless man for anything more than professional reasons but Kylo valued the dramatic in his dealings and resented when a opportunity was taken from him. He saw the General's left hand dip into the lining of that ridiculous greatcoat as he neared the scene Ren had arranged. The gesture confused him briefly, what could Hux need from his pockets in order to inspect prisoners?

There was a flash of reflected light from that hand as Hux approached the prisoner directly behind the leader. In a single gesture, hardly breaking stride, the General dragged the man's head backwards by the hair and opened his throat with the wicked little blade concealed between his fingers. Some kind of construction tool, the hooked knife was designed to cut as it was dragged and it passed though the structure of the prisoners throat- windpipe and all -like butter. There was no opportunity for the man to make any noise beyond a gurgle as his comrades were sprayed with his life blood but they soon began screaming in his place. Hux pitched the still twitching prisoner forward onto the bound legs of the supposed commander. The woman's back and hair were already thickly painted with gore but now the man's pulsing wound soaked her boots as his heart slowed to a stop.

Stepping delicately through the mess, Hux approached Kylo as he fastidiously cleaned his blade with a soft cloth, also retrieved from the lining of his coat. Ren wondered what else was in there as he tried to control his breathing.

"Did they tell you where the freighter is?" The General asked in a murmur, his face close enough to Ren's that he'd have felt his breath if it hadn't been for his mask between them.

"No," Kylo said, "but they do know. Let me take the information from them."

Hux raised an eyebrow. "After three days in the field you must be tired, Ren." He said, beginning to smile slightly. "I can handle this."

He turned to his troopers. "Have them placed in a cell together in detention block B. And have an interrogation room made ready."

"Yes, Sir." One of the troopers replied. "Incinerator for this one, Sir?" He asked, kicking the corpse slightly.

"No, toss it in there with them. Let them... contemplate it for a while."

\-----

Ren stood outside the interrogation chamber, stretching out his awareness to trying to follow what was happening behind the heavy soundproofed door. He wasn't needed. Hux had all but dismissed him with his comment about tiredness. On one level Ren wanted to prove the man wrong. On another he was simply intrigued. 

He would never have expected such a casual act of violence from the General. Snoke had told him that the majority of Hux' military experience was purely theoretical, that he trained by hyper realistic simulation and focused on ship based tactics for the most part. Where, then, had he learned to open a throat so cleanly that whilst he caught the man's comrades with arterial spray, he remained untouched? What were his experiences outside the military? As far as Ren knew the man had spent the last thirty years as an exile aboard the First Order's Star Destroyers. What kind of culture did they really have and how had Ren missed it up until now?

There'd been a two hour break between his presentation of the prisoners and the first man being brought up the interrogation block. During that time Hux had carefully arranged his space and made preparations for what was to come. 

Bizarrely there was an officer quality fresher across the corridor from the chosen interrogation chamber, with a genuine water shower rather than a sonic. Expensive leather boots were replaced with cheap plast moulded ones, a spare undershirt and jodhpurs were carefully hung up, followed by the uniform jacket and belt Hux had been wearing. Kylo was surprised to see that the sleeveless undershirt revealed relatively toned if undernourished arms, covered in scars. Most of the injuries were slight, pale lines suggesting they'd been inflicted years ago, a systematic habituation to pain perhaps? However the left shoulder was a mass of scar tissue encircling the entire joint. Kylo wondered if the man had almost lost the limb at some point. Certainly this was not the image he'd had of the man in his mind. Not that Ren had spent a lot of time thinking about how Hux appeared without his uniform. The half healed whip lines on his back itched, making a liar of him. Had any of the thoughts and memories he'd seen from the crew actually included the man out of uniform or had he merely invented those details for himself? 

Kylo was glad of his mask as the man sauntered past him, draping the greatcoat over the restraint chair. Carefully Hux emptied the many small pockets concealed in lining. At first Ren could look no further than the movement of the wiry muscles across his shoulders each time the General bent and straightened again. Licking his lips Ren wondered what the delicate bones of Hux' clavicles would feel like beneath his gloved fingers; whether he could entirely encircle those thin upper arms with his hands and dislocate those sloping shoulders as he used them for for leverage. That was one vision he hadn't seen amongst the crew. Auren Hux always did the taking. Perhaps Ren should introduce him to being taken? The wicked thought distracted Kylo for so long that when he next looked up Hux was taking the now lighter looking coat into the fresher to hang it up with the rest of his clothing.

Studying the small table beside be restraining chair, and the alcove in the wall behind it, Kylo saw fewer of the interrogation items he was used to from other First Order ships. A small collection of chemicals and methods of delivering the doses sat on a shelf that would normally be stuffed to bursting with multicoloured liquids. However there were a number of slim dark brown bottles with hand written labels lined up against the back of the shelf where the light would highlight them. The labels were mostly single words- "fire", "insects", "frostbite" etc. The next shelf held medical supplies, the sort used to treat wounds- gauze, suture needles, various threads and a cauterisation wand. There was of course a tray with various blades, saws and clamps but it had been pushed aside in favour of a more confusing collection of objects. Several small ornate boxes stood open revealing various slivers of wood, the needles from several toxic plants, and what looked like short barbed quills from some kind of animal. A selection of apparent household objects surrounded the boxes- what looked like spoons, corkscrews, pliers, tongs, wires, clamps, and odd pieces of metal- all arranged in a careful but unintelligible order. Loops of wire and leather strapping hung from the side of the table. The whole display with finished off by the incongruous sight of a metal cigarra case engraved with the First Order logo resting on the seat cushion of the chair alongside a matching lighter.

Returning from the fresher Hux scooped up these last items, dropping them into the deep pockets of his jodhpurs. Again Ren watched intently, biting the side of his tongue until he tasted blood, as Hux flexed his neck and intertwined his fingers, pushing his palms outward to stretch his shoulders. The man turned to fix Kylo with a green eyed glare.

"You really should retire now, Lord Ren," he said, a trace of a non-standard accent slipping though as each R was extended. "You must be exhausted."

"I will stay here until you have the information you need," Kylo replied, looming over the thin, underdressed redhead. "You may have need of me."

Hux sneered at that, tipping his head to a waiting stormtrooper. 

"I doubt it." He said lightly, stepping back to allow another pair of troopers to drag in the first prisoner. It was the man who'd lost part of an arm to errant wildlife. Clearly Hux didn't expect the flagging man to survive much longer. He might be difficult to persuade given the hours of intense pain he'd already endured, but it would be a waste of resources to heal a criminal simply to kill them later. Any information they could gain before the man succumbed to blood loss or sepsis would be a benefit. 

Hux stared flatly at Ren's mask whilst the prisoner was secured. Kylo took the opportunity to further study the General, aware that his visor would hide the fact that he wasn't actually meeting his gaze. The delicate skin on Hux' throat had taken on a pink tinge, spreading upwards from his chest. Shifting his eyes, Ren followed the line of his pulse, choosing not to consider the sparkling red hair creeping over the neckline of his undershirt. The man was clearly exciting- breathing deliberately through his mouth, his pupils blown.

Abruptly Hux turned on one heel, entering the interrogation chamber as the troopers exited, palming the door lock. The door closed with an unexpectedly loud clunk. Kylo had not felt an impact through his boots. The noise was a recording, clearly intended to remind the occupant of the inescapability of their fate. Across the corridor the pair of stormtroopers settled in to wait. In turn Kylo assumed a posture that, partially supported by the Force, would allow him to stand for up to fifty hours without discomfort. Snoke had trained it into him at an early age. He could drift, half in meditation, for endless dull watches. 

It was harder to read a space that he could not see into at all. The room had a long history of pain. Despite the relative newness of the flagship, years of suffering seemed to have seeped into the walls and floors. The other rooms around him did not have the same feeling when he touched them with the Force. In many cases the rooms had not been used at all. Reaching outwards it was clear that this was the space Hux favoured. 

The congealed emotions and projected sensations that coated the walls of that chamber- that couldn't be scrubbed away with the blood and viscera- all bore the characteristics of Auren Hux. Screams underwritten by that even, precise accent; the smell of blood not quite covering the scent of cloves and salt, of pomade and boot polish; swimming death rattle visions of red hair and emotionless turquoise eyes. Yes, Hux was the only man who had ever killed anyone in that space. 

The sensation was intoxicating and deeply disorientating, too many reflected thoughts from long dead beings prevented him from accurately focusing on what Hux was doing now. It was disappointing.

After just twenty five minutes a light clicked into life above the door. Stepping forward to two troopers dragged out the corpse of the first prisoner. From the unnatural colour of his skin Kylo assumed that Hux had stuck to chemical methods with this ailing man. The gaping stab wounds to the man's chest had clearly been inflicted post mortem, though by her intense screaming at the sight of her colleague the second prisoner had not noticed this. As the door closed again Ren wondered whether the savage injuries had been inflicted for the benefit of the woman or for the sake of relieving the General's frustration.

The second prisoner had been fit and healthy, she lasted for three hours before the light ignited once more. This one came out missing much of the skin from her arms and face. It produced a similar reaction of abject horror in number three. The stormtroopers were replaced. Five hours past. The light clicked. 

Number three had really resisted. Kylo didn't have long to study the body before it was whisked away but it was clearly missing all of its fingers, each stub neatly cauterised. A pattern of plant needles had been driven into his chest. Where the flesh had reacted- swollen, discoloured and oozing- the raised flesh formed the shape of the old Rebel Alliance. Kylo would spend the following seven hours wondering whether that familiar symbol of his childhood was in fact meaningful to that that particular person or if it had been aimed at himself. Ren didn't believe that Snoke would have revealed the truth of his heritage to someone like Hux, but his ever present paranoia would not allow the matter to rest.

When the light ignited for the fourth time Kylo glanced up and noticed that this time it was red rather than white. Nothing else happened until the familiar armoured footsteps of Captain Phasma echoed through the corridor. As she reached the door it slid open and Hux stepped out, leaning casually against the opposing door frame. The General was coated in blood. The white front of undershirt was stained a deep reddish, and lines of gore ran through his previously perfect hair where he'd thoughtlessly pushed a dripping hand through it. He lit a cigarra as the stormtroopers removed the last body. This one had to be placed onto a stretcher in order to be rolled away- amongst a cavalcade of horrors, Hux had opened the abdominal cavity and draped the intestines around the man's neck like a scarf. 

"Captain, out freighter has been taken by Mandalorians." Hux said, slowly exhaling thick fragrant smoke, allowing it to curl slowly from nostrils flared with repressed tension. "The coordinates have been sent to the bridge, but I will need you to liaise with the wing commanders and establish the best route to victory. I want that ship brought back with its cargo intact and as few losses as possible on our part."

Phasma nodded. After a few minutes of the kind of mass military planning that failed to hold Kylo's interest, the chrome clad woman marched away, leaving Ren and Hux to glare at one another in a silence that the Knight found deeply uncomfortable, and felt compelled to fill. 

"Fifteen hours and four interrogations, such a waste," Kylo began in his most judgmental voice. He didn't notice the fact that Hux was singularly unmoved by his tone, merely raising an eyebrow as he continued to focus on his cigarra. "Had you merely asked me, General, I could have given you that information with the first hostage."

Delicately Hux tapped his cigarra on the doorframe, loosening the ash before extinguishing the half stub against the sole of his boot. He casually dropped the remnant in a trouser pocket and stepped away from the door frame.

"I did get that information from the first prisoner," Hux said with a small, dark smile, "the Finalizer has been in persuit of the culprits for the last thirteen hours."

"Then why are you still..."

Hux laughed- a cold, awkward noise- before continuing as the fifth prisoner was dragged up the corridor. "Waste not, want not, Ren, thats my motto."

He winked, licking his lips in a mildly lascivious gesture as he turned back into his interrogation chamber.

Kylo was glowing bright red with embarrassment, humiliation and lust beneath his helmet. He'd stood there all that time unneeded. Hux had intentionally wasted his time. He should leave, return to his rooms or his ship. Instead he clouded the minds of the waiting stormtroopers and moved into one of the other empty, darkened interrogation chambers, one with a clear view of the room Hux was using. 

Twelve hours passed with three more deaths before the body of the leader, the very last of the prisoners, was dragged away by the stormtroopers. They did not return. A small army of cleaning droids gathered in the corridor, sweeping into the room as Hux stepped out. 

From his position in the shadows Ren watched as Hux stripped of his blood soaked shirt, dropping it in the path of an eager droid. Carefully Ren muted the vocoder on his helmet, unable to stop himself making a noise low in his throat as the man's surprisingly plush, blood smeared chest hair was revealed. Breathing hard he chewed his lip as both jodhpurs and undergarments followed, the ugly rubber boots kicked away. Completely nude, in the middle of what was essentially public corridor Hux stretched languidly, arching his back, his hips thrust forward. Kylo bit through his lip. The crew definitely had defective memories, or else their perspective was skewed. The thatch of rich curls at the juncture of Hux's thighs did nothing to hide a cock that was significantly larger than Ren's own. With one last twist of his spine Hux stepped into the fresher and out of view. 

He finally departed twenty minutes later, heading for his quarters and the chance to rest. The droids dispersed soon after. 

Reaching outward with the Force, Kylo ensured he was alone in the interrogation block before he slipped from his hiding place and into Hux' preferred room. Sealing the doors Ren eased his wide shouldered bulk into the interrogation chair. 

Initially he told himself that he only wanted to absorb the negative energy from the walls, to feel the suffering of hundreds, but his mind soon wandered. He wondered how it would feel to sit here as one of Hux' guests, to be completely consumed by the man's attention and receive such beautiful pain at his hands.

Auren Hux would have been fascinated to learn that- whilst he slept the sleep of the righteous in his suite twelve decks above- Kylo Ren sat rigid in an interrogation chair, sinking his fingers deep into the arms of the structure, silently reaching climax untouched as he imagined Hux torturing him. Yes. His dreams would have been even sweeter if he'd known about that.


	2. Chapter 2

Twenty six hours of interrogations and seven worthless, snivelling thieves for the incinerator. Eight if one counted the pathetic creature he'd slaughtered in the hangar. Not beyond his personal best on either count but a valuable opportunity to practice his techniques and de-stress a little. 

The fact that he'd been able to frustrate the fairytale monster haunting his ship at the same time had been rather a nice bonus. It had been satisfying enough to spoil his inept little bower bird display of prisoners by arriving from an unexpected direction, but the fact that the masked creature had actually stood in the corridor for so long without reward- that made his heart sing. 

The last of the prisoners remains removed, Auren stepped fastidiously over the gathering swarm of cleaning droids and out into the open corridor. Stripping out of his ruined undershirt he sighed quietly at the touch of the cool, relatively clean air across his skin. At his feet a droid eagerly consumed the abandoned shirt, the movement allowing him a reason to shift his eyes. The infinitesimal glance was all he needed to tell him that the darkness in one of the open interrogation chambers was indeed incorrect and just a little too deep. Ren had not left after all then. Hux had not survived the academy to be unduly concerned by even the most sinister of lurkers. Had this being with its mystical powers truly wished to do him lasting harm it would have been done already. Clearly he was waiting for something else. A closer look at interrogation chamber perhaps. 

With the easy grace of long practice Hux kicked away the cheap boots and stepped out of his ruined jodhpurs and underwear in a single motion, retrieving his lighter and the remains of his cigarra in the process. The pop and crackle of his spine as he stretched was almost as enjoyable as the relief of finally freeing his half hard cock from the uncomfortably tight standard issue undergarments. But neither matched the effect of the muffled moan from his hidden audience. 

An interesting development. One that would be better considered in the privacy of the refresher, preferably with the accompaniment of some self stimulation and the fragrant smoke of the last of the tobac in his hand. 

Double locking the door to the refresher Hux relit his cigarra and stepped under the jet of precious hot water, his free hand already working himself to a full erection. Although he'd never ascribed to the habits of sexual violence within an interrogation chamber, Auren would be lying to say he didn't gain some measure of excitement from the acts he practiced. The evidence lay hot and heavy in his fist, the steady stream of precome already running down its length a testament to the hours it had been neglected in favour of his art form. 

There were few things he enjoyed so much as to sinking into a willing body, painting the flesh of a loyal and dedicated crew member with the blood of their enemies and the thick white of his own satisfaction. On occasion he might allow a favourite to watch him at work on the video monitors he'd installed in order to study and refine his own technique. He'd encourage them to touch themselves to near completion with fingers and toys, so that they would be loose and slick and oh so pliant when he stepped from that blood soaked room trailing death and pain in his wake, able to free himself and mount them across a console in one fluid eloquent movement. 

But those events were a rare exception. As the possibility of open war became more likely, the opportunities for such recreation dwindled. Though perhaps once they'd retrieved their stolen shipment and the culprits were at his mercy he might invite Commander Liet to join him. The thought of what he intended to do to those thieves brought his mind back to the uninvited guest lurking just down the hall. 

Kylo Ren was an aggravation, an unwanted obstacle to the smooth running of his ship. He made the crew nervous with his violent outbursts. He spoiled machinery the Order could ill afford to replace. He treated the military command structure, and the General himself, with unconcealed contempt. But he was skilled in his own way. Hux had made a point to remind him of his own superiority by disrupting his display of prisoners, but the results themselves had been impressive. His own men, raised and trained on ship, would not have captured so many so easily in such an enviro. Perhaps there were things they might learn from one another, if either of them could stand the others presence for more than a few minutes. 

Well, now it seemed the leader of the infamously celibate Knights was showing a physical interest in Auren himself. Hux had heard enough rumours about their monkish habits of self denial. So of course, after the man's ridiculous silent protest at not being assigned quarters, it had seemed an obvious strategy to goad the creature. They said he could read minds so Hux made a habit of assigning officers he'd recently laid with whenever anyone needed to deal with him directly. Whether it had any particular effect had been unclear until just now. 

Ren was loitering outside, hidden in the dark, apparently for him. Auren's mind replayed that vocoder distorted moan and his fist unconsciously tightened around his cock. What was under that ridiculous outfit? The man had height and bulk, the sheer width of those shoulders was a stomach churning temptation. If he took him could he force that massive chest down against the floor with one hand whilst the other held the Knight's hips in place? Hmm yes. The skirts of his robes hitched up around his waist, leggings pulled down only enough to expose his virgin hole, his untouched cock still trapped in the fabric, that ludicrous mask scrapping against the floor with Auren's every thrust. 

Taking one last drag on his cigarra, Hux threw the stub towards the sink and stepped fully back under the stream of the shower. Swapping hands he began to work his length with his dominant hand, his pace and grip brutal as he imagined being the first to take the third most powerful being in the Galaxy. Was he even human under those robes? There had always been stories of Chiss or even more unusual species hidden amongst the Knights of Ren. Hux was no xenophile but he'd had a fondness for the fictional Admiral Thrawn since adolescence. The thought of sinking the reddened length of his cock into a dark blue hole had him gasping, his free hand coming down to fondle his testicles. Yes, pin him to the deck in a semipublic place and take him apart until he begged for completion through that wretched voice distorter, then watch the spill his glossy white seed across a firm blue backside as Ren came with the General's name on his lips.

No, that wasn't enough. Auren groaned deep in his throat, his orgasm just out of reach. No. Pin him down; fuck him; ruin him; have him a panting, sweating, begging mess against the deck; pull out and jam his long thin fingers into Ren's gapping twitching hole whilst the other hand dragged the mask around to be splattered with Auren's come. And then. 

Leave. 

Get up and just... walk away. 

Kylo Ren laying used and unsatisfied on the deck, his well fucked arse on display for all to see, his faceplate painted with the evidence of his humiliation, vocoder crackling around his scream of rage as Hux strolled out the door... Auren dropped to his knees as he came, the power of that mental image too much to stand after such an exhausting day. As he pressed his forehead to the cool floor tiles, cock still weakly pulsing in his hand, Hux promised himself that he'd revisit it. Often. 

It didn't occur to him until half an hour later, when he fell face first into his bed and sank rapidly towards sleep, to wonder whether a Force devotee could read a person's mind from another room. 

He was asleep before he could find the energy to care.

\-----

Kylo Ren had tried to sleep after his time inside the General's interrogation chamber, but even meditation wouldn't allow his mind to settle. Over and over it replayed the flicker of golden eyelashes as Hux gifted him with a malicious wink. The red hair trailing down the man's thin chest to thicken between his thighs, utterly failing to conceal the true size of his sinful attributes. The touch of all the suffering that room had absorbed. The shameful sensation of his own lascivious emissions cooling inside his armour as he returned to his quarters and the sting of the whip that no longer corrected his dereliction. 

Giving up on sleep he trained to the point of exhaustion, tearing apart a room intended to serve hundreds in a matter of hours. Still his mind was not free. The memories replayed, overlaid with the sinful thoughts of the crew as the daily announcements echoed through every corridor.

Abstractly he became aware that he stood alone in the observation lounge beneath the bridge, a single bulkhead's thickness from the General's own office. Unbidden his mind reached out with the Force, perversely satisfied to find the man present and in the company of another.

After a moments observation Kylo allowed his consciousness to sink into the other mind and see the situation through another set of eyes. As he left his body he was only just aware of his hand slipping within his robes to free his twitching cock. Another indiscretion he would have to pay for with blood and pain. 

Later.

\-----

Every officer within the First Order was scheduled for two days off in every ten. On the Finalizer these days were rarely used for idle relaxation. Auren Hux had made General at thirty two, a feat rarely achieved by even the brightest of the Imperial military. It was well known that the man's work ethic was a major contribution to his success. Even on his days off he could usually be found in his office working on one of his side projects or in a simulation room honing his leadership skills.

This morning the progress of the Starkiller project was his focus as the Finalizer continued its pursuit of the stolen freighter. 

Sitting comfortably in his high backed chair Hux paused in his perusal of the reports on his pad to admire the vista captured in the viewport. Hyperspace streaked by beyond the transparisteel, it's flickering light reflected to reveal the General's pale face and the naked form of Lieutenant Dopheld Mitaka kneeling between his legs.

A year younger than Hux, Dopheld had also graduated at the top of his academy class but his career progression had stalled at his current rank. It was not from lack of capability but rather a personal preference to remain in a position free from direct command responsibility. Hux tolerated this decision due to the simple fact that the man was exceedingly good at his job, loyal, trustworthy and dedicated to bettering himself. Following his commanding officers example Mitaka also used his off days to practice his skills, and as such he'd spent the last twenty minutes practicing his oral techniques on the General's willing cock.

Hux watched him for a moment, green eyes flicking over the small prim mouth stretched wide as he swallowed down the not insignificant length, his nose brushing against the soft red thatch of hair, tears springing in his expressive eyes as he fought his gag reflex. Moaning slightly, Mitaka leaned into the short caress of the General's fingers over his hair, whining slightly as the man turned back to his data pad.

Humming deep in this throat Dopheld swallowed hard, proving just how deeply he could take it before he drew back, swirling his tongue firmly around the head and pointing the tip to work under the foreskin as Hux unconsciously bucked his hips. He wanted to elicit a reaction. His hands had been massaging at the backs of the general's thighs, holding him in place, but now they came up to gently stroke against his perineum and roll his balls in time with his long sweeping licks from base to slit. The taste of precome intensified as Hux' cock twitched against his tongue, luring Dopheld closer again as he drew it deeper into his mouth, bobbing his head faster as his own excitement grew.

Feeling the rising tremor in the General's thighs against his shoulders, Dopheld adjusted his angle so he could watch his face as he worked. Hux' eyes remained on his pad as the colour rose in his cheeks, his tongue twitching across his plump shining lips to unconsciously follow the rhythm of Mitaka's own movements. The only sign he got of his commanding officer's imminent release was the flutter of golden eyelashes against the pink tinged cheeks. With one last deep suck Mitaka fell back onto his knees, face upturned - lips held open and eyes squeezed closed - to accept the ropes of white that stuttered from his General with a sigh.

Delicately he blinked his eyes open, careful to keep the pearls of come beaded on his lashes rather than allowing it to spread into his eyes. Dopheld had gotten semen in his eyes at the academy more than once and the effects were most unpleasant. Above him Hux tipped his head back against his chair, eyes closed and mouth slack above the flushed column of his throat. It was a beautiful view. Mitaka gritted his teeth as his own neglected cock twitched, a thin stream of precome sliding down towards his balls and the cooling pool beneath his thighs. It had been half an hour since he'd last touched himself.

With a deep breath the General righted himself and turned back to the pad in his hands. 

"Sir?" Mitaka asked in a quiet tone of suppressed hope.

"Hmm?" Hux flicked his fingers over his pad, scrolling to the next page.

"Sir, please, may I come?" There was less hope in his tone this time. 

With a sneer Hux dropped his head briefly to meet the Lieutenant's gaze. "No!" He said with an ironic mocking tone that suggested that the very idea was almost comical.

Dopheld stared at the floor for a moment, breathing evenly and endeavouring to hide his disappointment. At the count of ten he raised his head again. Hux had already turned back to the pad in his hand.

"In that case, Sir, may I have a pad?"

One was immediately passed down to him, already open at the first page of the follow up document to the one Hux was studying. It was common practice for them to alternate their reading like this- it was more efficient. 

Mitaka quietly opened the timer function, setting a silent alarm for twenty minutes and sat back on his heels to read. The spreader bar fastened between his knees, the seed on his face, and the precome rapidly cooling along his inner thighs were distant discomforts as his mind sank into the numbers before him. 

At nineteen minutes and seven seconds he spotted a detail that was sure to elicit a pleased reaction from his General. Cancelling the alarm, Dopheld carefully placed the pad back onto the desk above him and shifted forwards on his knees to lick a stripe up the length of Hux' mostly flaccid cock.

Auren drew a breath in through his nose and tilted his gaze down towards the man at his feet. 

"General Hux, might I recommend turning to section eighty two senth? I think you'll find it to your liking." Mitaka said softly, his eyes still fixed on the member before him, watching it begin to twitch in interest as his breath ghosted across the cooling spit. Above him Hux made a curious noise, his fingers tapping across the pad as Dopheld gently lapped at the reddening head of his cock.

The news that the Starkiller build was now coming in under budget- thanks to Colonel Fleck's inspired decision to execute most of the semi-skilled external contractors rather than pay them- evidently pleased the General, who silently handed down the lubricant and a slender black dildo. Mitaka almost felt offended by the offer. They both knew he was well used enough to go without the preparation for their purposes. However, when Hux threw his own pad onto the desk and sank both hands into Dopheld's short black hair, he realised the gesture was more for the General's own enjoyment than the Lieutenant's safety.

Continuing his kittenish laps across the head of Hux' cock, Mitaka blindly applied the slick to the surface of the toy. The gentle run of Hux' thumbnail across his cheek led him to look up, making eye contact as he shifted his hips and curved his spine to best display his small, firm backside. The movement painted Hux' further across his skin. He knew he looked debauched. He knew he could look better. Carefully he positioned the head against his hole, waiting for Hux to shift his eyes towards the toy before he pushed it slowly into himself, panting against the General's cock more for effect than from the stimulation. 

Above him Hux' face flushed once more, one hand fumbling free of Dopheld's hair long enough to feed his half-hard member back between the Lieutenant's swollen lips. More certain of his audience' desires now, Mitaka began to fuck himself with the slick length in his hand, drawing the General's cock deeper into his mouth with every inward thrust, moaning obscenely around the swelling girth and allowing spit to run freely down into the lap beneath him. His free hand drifted down his own stomach, edging towards the base of his own neglected length. 

Abruptly Hux caught his arm around the bicep and gave a warning squeeze. "If you want to come at all today you will _not_ touch yourself." He said in a tone that was surprisingly even given the swift rise and fall of his chest.

Nodding against the General's abdomen Mitaka deliberately moved his hand on to the other man's thigh. Although Hux had removed his belt and allowed his trousers to bunch around the tops of his boots his tunic remained in place, the mid length fabric pushed awkwardly back to allow Mitaka access to his cock. The brush of the smooth dress uniform satin across his face was oddly satisfying. Dopheld chased the feeling with his fingers, tracing up the seams of the General's tunic to brush against one pebbled nipple he found under the layers of padding Hux wore to augment his shoulders. 

That earned him a hiss of his own name, the General gripping the sides of his head as he fucked up into his mouth. With a whine Dopheld fucked himself faster, shifting his backside enticingly as he sought a friction the slim toy could not possibly provide. 

Hux knocked his hand away then, the toy still buried deep in him as he was dragged awkwardly up into the General's lap. After a moment of fumbling the spreader bar was removed and Hux shifted forward in his seat, pulling Mitaka flush against his chest. The grip on his arse would leave a pair of matching bruises by the morning but Dopheld couldn't find it in him to care as two clever fingers slipped inside him alongside the toy, fucking up into him at an agonisingly slow pace. The General's other hand shifted down then, managing to manipulate the lube and pour an excessive quantity into his fist. 

"I hope you didn't just read the headline and neglect to study the contents. Summarise the strategy for me." Hux said, speaking with level clarity despite their current position. 

He could feel the head of Hux' cock bumping against his perineum as the General slicked it, deliberately pushing up as the knuckles of his fingers pressed against Dopheld's prostate. Gasping in earnest now, Mitaka dropped his head into Hux' shoulder, whining against his ear with every movement.

"Come along Lieutenant, focus."

"Fleck ensured there was no outstanding work beyond the basic capabilities of our stormtroopers." Mitaka said, fighting to keep his voice steady as Hux continued his touches. "Slaughtered the contractors. Tore their ships apart for all valuable salvage and had the remaining debris scattered in a shipping lane. It will look like raiders. As the incinerators are not yet at full capacity he had the remains tested to ensure there would be no contamination. And ultimately fed them to the non-human contractors still on site."

Beneath him Hux laughed delightedly at that detail, the shift of his body making Dopheld twitch.

"Total budgetary difference to the First Order, including scrap parts value and savings on comestibles- just in excess of nine billion Sir. Sir, please." 

"Please what, Lieutenant?" Hux smirked as he turned his head. With a casual lasciviousness he licked the smear of his own seed from Mitaka's face before burying his nose in the man's dark hair. Gently Dopheld began to caress his chest, his thumbs easily rediscovering the General's nipples through his uniform.

"Sir, please may I have your cock?" He asked, shaking slightly as the fingers and toy immediately slipped free, leaving him open and suddenly cold. It wasn't enough. It never was. Hux was not a small man and they both enjoyed the resistance as his hole struggled to accommodate him, but the anticipation always left him trembling.

"Of course you may Lieutenant." Hux said with a feral twist of his lips. 

Mitaka muffled a shout against the General's neck as slim hips bucked under him, the head of Hux' cock breaching him in one unkind movement. He was allowed a moment or two to adjust, warm hands rubbing circles against his lower back as Hux nipped along his collar bone. 

Shifting back enough to make eye contact Dopheld clenched around the length inside him, wringing a stream of non-Basic curses from his General. Abruptly the soothing hands shifted to bracket his hips, forcing him down in one long movement with a grip that left five livid stripes in their wake. As Hux bottomed out Mitaka threw his head back and keened, wriggling his hips to take just a little more. 

Hux held him in place, fingers massaging along his thighs with bruising ferocity. 

"Is that what you want?" He asked, a hint of a threat in his voice. "Pain?"

"Sir, hurt me, please." Came the broken response, Mitaka's entire body twitching at the intrusion and the burn radiating through his abdomen. 

Casually Hux pushed at the centre of Dopheld's chest, forcing him back until his head and shoulder blades were resting on the desk behind him. The need to grab hold of his prick and jerk himself to release was almost too much to resist. But as the General began to snap his hips upward with a ferocity that had his screaming and slamming his head against the desk with every thrust it was all he could do to throw his arms over his head and grip the furthest edge of the desk. 

In his chair Hux leaned forward to bite at the pale expanse of flesh laid bare by the backward arched position. His hands alternated between teasing at nipples and scratching livid lines along the Lieutenant's softly defined muscles as they twitched and spasmed. He was hitting the man's prostate on every thrust now, driving him to near incoherence as he resolutely refused to touch the swollen and angry looking cock that jutted between them. Between the spasms of the channel around him and the mantra of "Sir, Sir, Sir," being driven from Dopheld like a prayer, Hux was close. Mitaka could feel his balls tightening against his backside and tried to grind down harder.

"Say my name."

"Hux, Hux, sir please, General Hu..."

A hand connected with his arse with a ringing slap, knocking the breath out of his lungs and driving him upright. Mitaka sobbed, pressing his face into the General's neck once more as thrusts continued at the same brutal pace.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I'm sorry."

"Do you want to come, Lieutenant?" The hot palm of the hand that did the slapping closed around Mitaka's length at last, the stationary grip enough to bring out actual tears.

"More than anything, Sir."

"Then say my name."

"But Sir, your uniform." 

Hux was still wearing his dress tunic, pressed almost chest to chest as they were he was sure to spill onto it.

"I have another." Hux murmured. "Ruin it. Just. Say it."

Catching his bottom lip between his teeth Mitaka watched as the General switched hands, the left with its rank striped cuff gripping his cock with a fierce twist. 

"Auren, please!"

With a stifled grunt Hux's hips thrust wildly for a moment, his hand following the opposing rhythm over Dolpheld's neglected cock. They both watched as Mitaka came, his seed spattering over both their chests and the General's rank stripes. It was a sight that had him clenching and finally coaxing the hips beneath him to stillness as Hux' filled his abused hole with his seed.

\-----

"Lord Ren?"

"Yes Captain?"

"May I request your assistance with the freighter retrieval, Sir?"

"Yes Captain."

"We meet in hanger twelve in one hour."

"Yes Captain."

If Phasma noticed the pearly fluid streaking the transparisteel of the viewport, or the twin starburst patterns cracked into decking that radiated out around Ren's feet, she never mentioned it.

\-----

The retrieval was less complicated than Kylo had expected. He knew something of Mandalorians, mostly from his fa... from childhood stories about Boba Fett. They'd rarely impressed him. Yes the creature had traced and captured Han Solo but the man was hardly an adept at anything at all, it was like being famous for catching a cold. Then Fett had died in a supremely stupid way and would have been forgotten if Jabba's empire hadn't collapsed during the same incident. 

The thieves had taken over a derelict mining colony as a way station on some longer smuggling route. Sitting on a tiny moonlet the prefabricated colony had once harvested rare ore from the belt around a gas giant. Some kind of catastrophe had happened, long ago, it's only remaining testament in the form of blood stains in the plasteel and corroded sections of the decking. 

The new occupants had succeeded in making only a portion of it airtight again and it was easy work for the First Order's Stormtroopers to corral them into the large mess hall by blasting through the walls of every other room. Run and breathe or stand your ground and suffocate. 

Kylo was not needed to discover the location of the freighter and its cargo, the prisoners dropped to their knees and confessed all to Phasma in the misguided belief that a female might spare them in return for such information. They were wrong. As they began to die like cowards Kylo felt the nagging certainty that these were not true members of a warrior band that was feared throughout the galaxy. 

With a word he stopped the executions and step closer to the oldest of the survivors. He looked familiar. Kylo's mind tried to page back through his own uncertain memories but too much was distorted or blocked. So he reached into the man's head instead. He instantly found an image of a gangly young man with protruding eyes and a shy, sad smile. Ben Solo. 

Around the room the Stormtroopers shifted nervously as Kylo Ren fell on his victim, dragging him down to the ground whilst one hand hovered above his screaming contorted face. After a moment that seemed to last for years the shrieking faded into a choking death rattle as blood poured from the man's mouth, his larynx destroyed. 

What followed was a bloodbath. Ren tore through the rest of the prisoners, snapping the necks of the few Mandalorian apprentices with hardly a thought, whilst the many Resistance allies who'd apparently sought safe passage through the smuggling lanes suffered a much worse fate.

Lor San Tekka. A man he'd also known as a child. He held a portion of the map to Skywalker. Possibly the last piece in the document Kylo and his Knights had sought for the last year. No one knew precisely where he was hidden. Vague mentions of downed star destroyers and sand could be any of a hundred worlds. Kylo had snatched as much information from each mind as he could find but there was little and the brutality of their deaths matched his rising frustration.

The Mandalorian leaders had fled at the approach of the star destroyer, leaving their underlings and passengers to die. A wing of TIE fighters found the freighter itself half hidden amongst mining waste. It was in no condition to fly but the cargo modules were still thankfully intact.

Watching from the hovering transport shuttle as the Finalizer's droids extracted the modules for individual transport Kylo was struck by a disturbance in the Force. Something in those modules wasn't right.

\-----

Hux turned on his heel to greet the Knight with an odd combination of a sneer and a smile when Ren stormed into the docking bay. The modules were being unloaded and the General's mind was a seething mass of avarice, tinged with something like pride or perhaps possessiveness. When his eyes made contact with Kylo's form the entire mindscape was briefly overrun by a vision of Hux' slender hands gripping the shoulders of Ren's armour to force him down face first into the floor. 

Beneath his mask Kylo sank his teeth into his lower lip, eager to put off the lustful twitching of his anatomy at the other man's thought. 

"I understand you left us no prisoners to interrogate." It was a statement of fact, not a question.

"They were worthless." Ren said flatly, staring beyond the General's shoulders to the units being readied for unloading. About the walls of the massive space, between the ever present stormtroopers, stood groups of quartermasters, armourers, and rather more medical staff than Kylo would have expected for cargo distribution. "Captain Phasma intended to execute them all."

Hux sighed, "but not in a way that would leave twelve stormtroopers fit for reconditioning."

"If they find themselves faint at the sight of blood then they have no place in the military." Ren said. He tipped his head back toward the General, his attention caught by the heating of his thought patterns. 

"She said you tore out a woman's spinal column." Hux said, tone casual but eyes shining. Ren followed the flicker of his tongue over plush lips. "With your bare hands. Whilst she was still alive."

"Yes." Kylo's tongue felt heavy in his mouth, the confines of his mask suddenly claustrophobic. Hux was still licking his lips. He was smiling.

"General Hux!" The moment was ruined by Petty Officer Thanisson's shout. Both men turned toward the control tower. "We're ready to begin, Sir."

Hux waved a hand, the contents of his greatcoat pockets tinkling slightly. The crew bustled into life.

"General, I have grave concerns about the contents of these containers, have they been..." 

Another wave of an elegantly gloved hand cut him off. "They have been thoroughly scanned and they contain precisely what we expected." Auren said, the sense of possessiveness seeping back into his voice.

The first unit opened with a hiss of released atmosphere to reveal the expected crates and bales of weapons and supplies. Each group darted forward in well practiced efficiency to take their spoils. The container soon stood empty. Or rather the space beyond the door stood empty and accounted for less than a third of the overall capacity of the structure. 

Now the medical staff crowded around the General, a number of older, friendly faced crew wearing a uniform Kylo had never seen before sanding at the fore. An officer climbed into the module and pressed an object against a nondescript panel. It was a severed hand, hooked up to some kind of tech to keep the tissue alive. Ingenious, Kylo mused for a moment before the rear panel split and unleashed an unholy noise that echoed through the hanger.

Screaming. _Children screaming_. The module was filled with droids and human children, not one older than three, some barely old enough to raise their own heads. The friendly looking crew surged forward then, plucking up infants and hurrying towards the main doors with them, cooing and babbling as they went, each with medical personnel trailing after. Kylo knew his mouth was open. He couldn't process the scene before him as Hux nodded, a please smile on his face as these youngsters filed by them.

He must have sensed the Knight's unease- seen it in his posture or his lack of comment on the bizarre scene.

"They call us child snatchers, cradle thieves, as if an organisation like the First Order has time or funds to loiter outside their homes waiting to steal away their darlings." Hux said in an amused tone, still surveying the slowly moving crowd. "Of course, if an entire settlement must be neutralised then it would be a waste to throw the young malleable minds into the pits with their parents. But beyond that, we don't steal children."

Kylo looked pointedly around the hanger, his hands raised. "Really, General? Then what do you call this? Daycare?"

"Liberation," Hux said, a gloved hand passing over his face as if hiding a smirk at Kylo's words. "These children were taken from a large purchase at a slave market on Tattooine. Most were destined for sexual or domestic service in Hutt controlled space. Our freighter was inconveniently intercepted by the thieves you captured. The Mandalorians would no doubt have tried to sell the cargo back to the Hutts. Instead they are back in our hands and ready to join the Stormtrooper program."

"Slaves."

"They _were_ slaves," Hux corrected as the second unit was opened and the process of unloading repeated, "now they will be soldiers, with a family that wants them. Most of these children were sold by their parents or kin. The infants likely come from a breeding farm. One or two may have been snatched, but whatever their origin we will give them purpose."

"Surely a clone army would be more efficient." 

The small amount of cordiality evaporated from the General's face. That was a grave error, Kylo noted, a small unformed element of his soul mourning the loss of Auren's good humour.

"Clones are flawed, weak. An army built on one man will topple at the smallest blow to whatever fault lies in his makeup," Hux said, his face marred by an infuriated sneer. "Our Stormtroopers are trained to the best of their individual skills. Variety adds strength. Darth Vader himself began his life as a slave, remember that, Kylo Ren."

He bristled at the mention of his grandfather.

"But would it not be better to raise the Order's own children in the program?" Kylo asked, unsure why he wanted to continue the line of questioning. He shifted slightly to allow another gaggle of disorientated children to pass. "Then you would know their pedigree at least."

"Ren, the First Order was built on the Emperor's own loyal officers, to put their children or grandchildren into the _Stormtrooper_ program..." Hux sounded aghast. "Officers offspring train as officers."

"Is that where your children are then, General?" Beneath his helmet Kylo cursed himself as Hux turned a baffled face towards him.

"I have no children."

"Now that's a waste of resources." He was sleep deprived, that must be it. How long had it been since he'd last slept? Days? A week? Kylo could think of no other reason for his mouth running away with him like that. He'd caught glimpses of the General's thoughts when he lay with the female crew members, he'd never imagined it was only fantasy.

Hux stared at him, mouth open for a moment before a horrible reprieve came in the form of the opening of the final module. Athough the containers had been scanned, and the correct number of life forms had been detected, the officer involved had not looked any further at the readings. Or else he would have noticed that the thirty human infants he'd been expecting were in fact full grown adults of various species. 

Kylo had been right to be suspicious of the containers but he'd allowed himself to lower his guard on discovering the nature of the cargo. 

Now the docking bay was swarming with Mandalorian warriors. Many of them had grabbed hostages as they stormed out of their hiding place. Mostly medical personnel. And General Hux. 

Kylo reached for his saber as the man who'd dragged Hux backwards pressed a blaster hard against the General's red hair. "Anyone moves and he's dead."

Someone made a noise that had to be a snicker as Hux rolled his eyes at the cliché. No one except Kylo had moved. Some of the staff in the control tower were craning their necks for a better view but beyond that everyone watched the General in silence. 

He seemed to be calculating in his head. Ever so subtly he was working his hands out of his gloves, the movements so small and well hidden by his coat that his captor wouldn't notice it. Kylo didn't understand the significance but then he hadn't understood about the coat until the deck had been painted red at his feet.

Finally Hux met Kylo's gaze with a purpose. Skimming his mind he saw that Hux was carefully envisioning a specific bottle in an inner coat pocket close to his captor. He was picturing the lid unscrewing and the container falling onto the man's feet. Although the warrior's wore most of their armour, they'd clearly escaped to their hiding place in a hurry- many wore no helmets and only soft shoes. 

Frowning Kylo tried to establish what Hux intended, were the contents corrosive? Surely that would affect the General's feet as well. The question was not received. The man before him had all the Force sensitivity of a brick. It'd take weeks to train him in telepathic conversation. They had minutes. 

With a minute tip of his chin as a signal Kylo reached the force out towards the pockets- careful not to brush the other man's tempting figure- and dislodged the bottle. He allowed it to tip as it fell, cushioning the landing so it bounced, a cloud of grey green powder billowing up to around the height of the General's knee. 

Nothing happened.

Hux stood stoic and unmoving.

The man holding the gun against the General's temple twitched an eyebrow. His nose scrunched and his eyes widened. Carefully he raised a foot and shook it, as if to free some pebble that had caught in his shoe. The powder billowed up once more, the bottle rolling noisily across the floor but he didn't seem to notice it. His twitching became more frantic. 

Hux was speaking in a low clear voice, still staring straight ahead. "Didn't your mother ever tell you the First Order is infested with jaeze mites? We're immune thanks to the Emperors genetic engineering program, but they absolutely love scum like you. They burrow under the skin, you see, looking for blood and hormones, and a place rich with both to lay their eggs. Can you feel them? Biting you, wriggling just beneath the surface of your skin, following the path of your veins inward towards you glands and your sexual organs? Can you feel them writhing as they reproduce? The larvae eat their way out you know. They're three times the size of their parents, and there are so many of them. You'll probably survive the first infestation, though you'll wish you hadn't. But they're in your hair now, and in your clothes. The second generation will follow swiftly on the first and you'll die screaming as they consume you from the inside out. Can you feel it?" 

The slow steady pace of his voice had Kylo's own skin crawling at the description, though he'd never heard of jaeze mites before... Glancing down he finally recognised the bottle as one from the General's torture chamber. The label read "insects". Brushing over Hux' mind again he found it busy with calculations over a background of agonising physical sensations. The powder had gotten in over the tops of his boots. His words fuelled the delusion of crawling, biting insects in the ill-educated warrior, but the feeling was very real. 

Finally the twitching, writhing Mandalorian dropped to the ground, abandoning his gun as he clawed at his face and crotch in horror. As soon as the gun was aiming away from his vital organs Hux had shrugged out of his coat and turned, the infamous fingerprint-encoded blaster in his ungloved hand. Kylo had imagined that the tales of Hux as an adept sharpshooter were no more than a baseless rumour. The man was credited with more accomplishments than could possibly be achieved in a mere thirty four years. 

Twenty nine shots rang out in quick succession. Twenty nine Mandalorians fell dead, their captives unharmed.

It was not a rumour.

Stepping back from the flailing warrior at his feet Hux kicked the remaining pile of powder into his face, breaking his nose in the process. Picking up his coat, he shook it out over the fallen man then summoned a droid to decontaminate it as well as his gloves. There was still no outward sign of his own discomfort. The strength of his will and self control had Kylo staring in something like awe.

"Captain?" He called softly, fiddling with the settings on his blaster. "Have a hazmat team put this one in a detention cell for... ten hours... before you hose him off. Restrain him if he looks like he's going to injury himself too much." Glancing down he noted that the man was now trying to claw out his own eyes. "Well, make sure he lives at least. And send a detachment back to the mining colony, the rest of the cargo has probably been concealed somewhere in the colony buildings."

"Yes, General," Phasma said smartly. Concern rolled off her in waves as she looked at the powder coating the man at their feet and the General's own boots. 

Satisfied with the adjustment to his blaster Hux turned and shot through both of the warrior's kneecaps. "Make sure he lives."

The crew turned to watch as he strode towards the decontamination showers.

"Pfassk." Someone said with feeling. 

\-----

Kylo sat at the centre of his bed in a meditation pose, his naked skin scrubbed raw, the map of whip marks on his back slowly oozing blood and lymph onto his standard issue black sheets. 

He'd spent too long inside the General's mind and the sensation of crawling insects had spread to his own skin by Hux' sheer strength of mind. 

Hux was a problem. A fascination. A weakness. He hated him and yet. The interrogation chamber called to him. The whip was no longer enough. His body ached and bled and burned and still it wanted. 

Perhaps Hux could give him the pain he needed to find his equilibrium. 

Perhaps Hux could give him something else. 

His mind inevitably drifted back to the scene he'd witnessed through the eyes of Lieutenant Mitaka. The man had expended so much energy to take the General apart, but he had left serene and satisfied as if the act had somehow purified him. Was it like the relationship between master and acolyte? Hux took what Mitaka needed to give in order to feel whole, showed him new and better ways to expend that energy, to become a truer rendition of himself? He thought of his own training. The deprivation, the beatings, the discomfort, and the starvation, every ounce of suffering burning away another element of the Light and cauterising his soul against its pervasive influence.

Snoke had said that another test was coming, one that would prove him finally free from attachments to his former life. Would that be enough? Was there a lesson here that his particular brand of weakness required to transform into strength?

Slim pale fingers clutching at the shoulders of his armour as his face, no his mask, was driven towards the floor. That was what Hux wanted. He'd seen it in his mind and the vision had brought the General pleasure. It had made him affable and generous with his time. Suddenly Kylo wanted more of that time at his disposal.

He needed the rest of that vision. 

He reached out through the Finalizer in search of the pocket of control that was Auren Hux' mind.

\-----

He found him far from controlled, his mind a racing wheel of indecision.

There was a woman on her hands and knees in his bed. From Hux' point of view he could see nothing but the scarred expanse of her back and the long rich auburn hair currently wrapped around his fist. her skin was several shades darker than the General's own making his seem almost ethereal where he watched his cock driving into her cunt. 

It felt wrong to observe this congress from this point of view. Kylo had watched the General before, with other women, but now he found himself repulsed by the feeling of this particular flesh beneath Hux' hands. 

Shaking himself he shifted his consciousness into the woman's mind, immediately recognising her as Commander Iria Liet. The one who had first showed him to his quarters, the evidence of an earlier union with the General still seeping between her legs. 

A regular occurrence then.

Pain rippled through her as Hux dragged her up onto her knees by her hair, his feet hand running down her stomach to slip between her legs. Kylo heard himself groan in his own quarters as she ground down onto the twin stimulation of cock and fingers. Behind her Hux twisted his hand, wrapping the long rope of her hair further around his fist. 

"Auren," she said, far too casually for Kylo's liking, as if his given name belong in her mouth, rather that it being a sacred gift earned by long hours of service, "Auren, why is there a syringe by the bed? Because if you're planning on sedating me again I have a shift beginning in four hours."

"How dedicated are you to our cause?" Hux asked against her ear, his fingers rubbing slow circles as she writhed against him.

"An interrogation of my loyalty is it? Surely we'd do better to move, ah frell, move this downstairs."

"No," Auren said, biting hard at her shoulder. "It was pointed out to me today that I have omitted something from my future plans." 

"That's not like you at all, are you feeling quite well?" She teased, earning herself a few brutal thrusts. "Pfassk Auren, please I'm close."

"I have no heir." Hux continued, his rhythm unchanged as if she hadn't spoken.

"What?" Iria gasped, trying to turn against the tight grip on her hair.

"Would you have a child for the sake of the First Order?" Hux asked. She was shaking now, her back pushed flush against his chest, one hand over his own between her thighs, the other reaching around to clutch at his backside, forcing him closer with every thrust.

"When you say 'for the Order', do you, in fact, mean for you?" 

"Of course," he said in the cold voice that calmly ordered the destruction of all in his path, "I _am_ the First Order."

Throwing her head back against his shoulder, ignoring the pain from her hair, she came gasping out his name over and over as his clever fingers dragged it out. In his quarters Kylo felt the warm splash of his own release against his crossed calves and hated himself for it. 

With unexpected gentleness Hux released his grip on her hair and wrapped both arms around her torso to lower her to the bed, careful not to slip free as he sank down on top of her. 

The pace now was slow, deep and forceful, the Commander writhing slightly against the aftershocks. Shamefully Kylo revelled in the shared sensation of being bracketed by Hux' arms and thighs, pinned facedown to the bed in the cage of his body.

"You're serious, aren't you?" She muttered, trying to turn her head enough to see him through the fall of her hair. "I assume I wouldn't get to keep it?"

Hux brushed her hair back to bite at her shoulder and the meat of her bicep. "Until it's five and ready to go into the advanced Officer program."

"Just one?"

"If I learned anything from my father and older brother it's the importance of a back up plan. Three."

Beneath him Iria laughed, squeezing her thighs against his thrusts. "Auren, you killed your brother."

"Precisely."

"They'd have your name."

"Yes."

"And I..."

"No. The possibility of a politically advantageous marriage must remain."

"Or love match."

"Don't tell me you've started believing in love, Liet," Hux said, urging her back up onto her knees. "I'll see a bantha fly before I believe that."

"Your asking me to give up eight years of my career, what do I get?" She replied with a pout, arching back like a cat stretching to present him with a deeper angle. She sighed as he took full advantage of the position, another orgasm quickly building deep in her abdomen. Silently Kylo cursed as his own member, exhausted and sore, thickened at the pleasurable feedback. "Give me a ship, something with a crew of a few thousand."

"The Retribution?" Hux offered in a maddeningly business like tone. How did he do that? Kylo was alone and untouched in his rooms- he could not have held a rational conversation like this if his life depended on it- never mind if he'd been plunging his cock into a willing partner.

"Done. How do you want to proceed? I can get to medical after my shift..."

"No outside intervention. There's too much risk of interference from third parties."

"I have an implant Auren, we all do, surely that has to be removed first?" 

Leaning awkwardly forward, driving himself deeper into her heat, Hux retrieved the syringe. "This contains a counteractive agent to disable the implant and a cocktail of hormones to trigger immediate ovulation." He ran the tip of the needle along her back and down over the firm swell of her buttock. She bucked backwards at the sensation, encouraging him to a more forceful pace. He groaned. "You could leave here already carrying in my child. Either way I want you back here every night for a week."

The General's free gripped deeper into the flesh of her hip. Distantly Kylo recognised in the building of Hux' release as she felt the thickening of his cock. He couldn't resist and opened his mind to input from them both. The duel sensations of the friction and the punishing thrust brought Kylo's own abused cock to full hardness in a rush that made him almost dizzy. Although the Commander's mind remained relatively calm, the Genera had developed a laser point focus on the act at hand. Kylo had seen his half formed desire to conceive a child in his other encounters, now the possibility was in his reach and it he could think of nothing else.

Liet was twitching again, panting into the mattress as Hux drove into her with a bruising force. "General, Auren, please, do it."

The needle sank into her flesh and she came screaming, Hux following immediately after, his thumb compressing the plunger as the clenching of her channel milked his seed from him.

\-----

Back in his own rooms Kylo broke the connection with a roar, bent almost double at the pain of another orgasm dragging from his unwilling flesh. Dimly he observed that almost nothing dribbled onto his sheets this time as his cock twitched feebly. 

The bed rose up to meet him and he collapsed sideways, finally exhausted enough to fall towards sleep. 

Somewhere in his mind as unconsciousness took him he remembered that his grandfather had been created by the Force itself. 

Was this disrespectful woman really the best option for the continuation of the Hux family name? He needed to consult his books. Perhaps there was something better he could offer Hux to get the relief he so desperately needed.


	3. Chapter 3

The alarm was insistent, clawing at the inside of his skull like a carrion beast trying to scratch out the last meaty morsels of his sanity. Kylo groaned as he Force manipulated the data pad into his outstretched hand. The sound morphed into a cry of pain when he sat up to read the messages on the screen. The last of the bruised, overused ache in his genitals was overshadowed now by a white hot fire extending from bladder to kidneys. As he staggered into the refresher his mind registered the date stamp on the lock screen of his pad. He'd slept for almost four days.

The cool touch of the ceramic tiles eased the discomfort in his trembling sweat-soaked limbs. With one forearm braced against the wall he stared down at himself as he pissed. In his sinful excesses he had literally rubbed himself raw, the skin of his cock still red and inflamed. Similarly, he dispassionately noted the discolouration of the fluid leaving him. Reaching inward with the Force he found internal trauma from his abuses and the resultant infection spreading upward through his renal system. Severely dehydrated, disorientated, stomach cramping with hunger, riddled with bacteria that had taken advantage of his weakened state- it was just like his first days training with Supreme Leader Snoke all those years ago.

Now, as then, the suffering was justified, the righteous bite of pain to remind him of his duties and his dereliction. He would not heal himself- let this punishment progress as it must, let it purify him of the taint and temptation that walked through the Galaxy in the form of Auren Hux.

At his feet his data pad began to sound an alarm once more, the tones finally working their fingers into his muzzy brain. Activating the touch screen with one toe he peered past the swell of his thigh to read the waiting message. His Knights were onboard. They were waiting for him. Snoke had authorised the hunt for Lor San Tekka.

There would be no time for purifying suffering. He was doomed.

Laying one hand flat against his abdomen he sighed as the tendrils of the Force began to eradicate the bacteria in his system, reducing the swelling in his abused ducts and soft tissue.

He'd have to eat in the shuttle. There wasn't time to do so now, even if it would leave his energy levels dangerously low once he'd finished healing himself. Drifting through his sparsely furnished rooms he retrieved the thankfully droid-laundered pieces of his robes, awkwardly pulling them on whilst trying to maintain the flow of energy through his system.

He should inform General Hux of his departure.

Somewhere in the depths of his mind a disgusted voice pointed out that this was merely an excuse for contact with the man, an opportunity to rifle through his mind before an extended separation. He would resist, the voice told him coldly. He had never bothered to inform the General of his whereabouts before, he would not do so now. It was beneath his dignity as the grandson of Darth Vader to abase himself to a creature like Hux. The admonition did not have the desired effect. Kylo was suddenly struck by a lurid vision of himself kneeling at Auren's feet ready to fulfil his every wish. Instead of steeling his mind against temptation, he reached out with what little reserve of the Force he had left, and sought the General's whereabouts.

All he received by way of confirmation was echoed screams and the tang of disinfectant. The interrogation chamber then.

\-----

"I'm off duty." Hux said with disinterest, wiping blood from his finger tips with the edge of his undershirt. "What precisely is so urgent that it requires my immediate attention?"

Kylo shifted nervously, the unexpected admonishment affecting him more than it should have. He sought this man's approval, though he didn't understand why. Instead he'd irritated him.

Behind the General's shoulder he could see the Mandalorian leader in the interrogation chair, or rather what was left of him. Hux had been in the process of removing a portion of his right leg, extending from mid-thigh to just below the knee cap, the lower section apparently having been removed a few days earlier judging from the pattern of clotting and healing. The man was still conscious, his teeth sunk into a leather bit, eyes rolling as a droid administered some kind of medication.

"Well?"

Beneath his helmet Kylo blinked. "My Knights are onboard." He said stupidly.

"A fact I am well aware of, thank you Ren. There are few things that spoil Stormtrooper morale like a pack of stinking walking-nightmares disrupting the smooth running of my ship. I do hope you're here to tell me you'll be removing them post haste?"

"Yes," he said, too quick, too eager.

"Oh good. Don't feel the need to hurry back on my account."

With that Hux stepped back into the room and the door closed with its exaggerated sound effect.

Stupid. Weak. Undisciplined.

With a muffled growl Kylo punched the wall by the door control. Behind him someone snorted.

Spinning in place he caught sight of a swirl of dark auburn hair lit by blue monitor screen glow just beyond a door as it slid shut, the locking mechanism slipping quietly into place. Liet. Hux was permitting her to watch his work whilst Kylo was dismissed as so much sewage.

Unworthy. Presumptuous. Disrespectful.

His hand drifted to the lightsaber at his side. His comm unit beeped. His Knights were waiting. Another time then. Although...

He reached outwards with the Force, feeling her location easily though the walls of the underused room. He could move quite large objects with the Force. Smaller things were easy. Such as blood vessels. It was a matter of a few moments work to disrupt her uterine lining. Hux would have to wait until next month if he wanted to breed her.

Sneering vindictively to himself behind his mask Kylo stalked away in search of his Knights.

\-----

Petty Officer Thanisson stood in the tight confines on the storage locker- hand braced against a shelf, feet spread as wide as the jodhpurs pooling around his knees would allow, spine arched into a deep concavity to bring his small arse more fully into view. Lubricant spilled down the inside of his thighs to mix with the precome slipping down the smooth surface of the waxed testicles already drawing in tight against his body.

Kylo gaped at the sight. He'd never seen a creature so utterly free of hair. Rifling compulsively, shamefully, through the young man's mind he found the memories he sought. Thanisson laying prone on a desk, his chest and stomach red from the treatment, a perfect contrast to the multiple strands of white seed decorating his skin. Lieutenant Mitaka, his own cock enclosed by a glittering ring, applying an even layer of slightly too hot wax to the inside of Thanisson's thigh and pressing a sheet of paper to it, gently working the dark bruised swell of his cock as he sobbed in anticipation. After what seemed like an age Mitaka looked up, awaiting permission. Glancing up from his data pad Hux nodded slightly, pausing at his work for a moment to watch. The figure on his desk writhed with the rip of the wax, another feeble splatter of seed decorating Thanisson's narrow chest as he came at the sensation.

Distantly Kylo felt his own cock harden. He dropped the memory as if it burned, turning his mind back to the storage room, forgetting that he was merely switching one sexual situation for another.

Hux was in the small room with Thanisson, his back pressed tight against the door to protect his immaculate uniform from the various fluids decorating the Petty Officer's skin. With an aching slowness that had Kylo biting his lip, three gloved fingers, glistening with slick, eased from the stretched and reddened hole displayed before him. Trailing his fingers over one quivering buttock the General admired his work with a proprietorial air, his own lips moist and swollen.

Thanisson sighed and struggled to keep his muscles loose against the tantalising slide of an object down the length of his crease, groaning as Hux teased it around his fluttering rim.

"Breathe out," he murmured, his soft tone a contrast to the wicked sneer as he shoved the plug home in one unkind movement. Thanisson keened as he bucked his hips slightly against the intrusion.

"Th-thank you, General," he moaned a little breathlessly as he was turned and pushed down onto his knees.

"Keep that in until the end of your shift and I think you'll finally be ready to take my cock," Hux said conversationally, hands falling quickly to his own belt, the awkward catches of his fly opening with the speed of frequent practice. "A just reward for preventing those traders leaving with stolen supplies, I think. Am I not generous?"

"Oh yes, Sir. Very, Sir," Thanisson replied, his wickedly long tongue darting out to lap appreciatively at the head of the cock he was offered. "May I come, Sir? Please?"

Tilting his head down, Hux considered for a moment, twining his fingers tightly into the neatly gelled hair as he thought. "Well, my boots would benefit from being licked clean... You may come when I do. No sooner. Understood?"

Cold, fetid water hit Kylo's sleeping form, dragging him abruptly from the dream memory and back to the dark, dank interior of the Knights' ship.

A nightmare vision peered down at him, crouching over his chest, one knee brutally crushing down his erection.

[Sin. Filth. Temptation. Impure. Weak.] The unmasked creature above him clicked, spraying his face with warm saliva as its tongue writhed.

The Knights of Ren were almost universally less than two decades older than Kylo Ren, representing the few Force sensitives weak enough to avoid the attentions of Darth Sidious after the cleansing of the Jedi temple. They had been given to Kylo to lead as a result of his superior strength in the Force, rather than any tactical prowess on his part. Tanma Ren at thirty years older was the one exception. He had fallen to Anakin Skywalker's blade like all the other younglings, but rather than losing his life Tanma had only lost the lower half of his face and most of his sanity. Snoke had found the wounded child in the ruins and raised it to serve him. Even Kylo Ren could not approach this fellow acolyte's level of devotion.

Eager to look away from the usually masked remains of the creature's face Kylo turned his head to look out into the rest of their communal dormitory. All his Knights were awake, all but one naked as they crowded around his bunk. Studying the group he realised that all of them showed signs of arousal, sexual organs becoming erect, labia and cocks dripping. The room stank of it. Even Romon Ren, who had been piloting the ship, twitched their hips rhythmically as if trying to gain friction from the seam of their crotch guard.

He must have been projecting his dream.

[Corrupted. Temptation. Treason. Betrayer. Eradicate.]

Remembering the Knight crouching over him Kylo whipped his head back around. He moved before he consciously saw the blade descending, dodging the blow and unbalancing Tanma in its perch. They struggled together for control of the knife, ultimately falling to the floor. The circle of Knights drew in, fascinated as Kylo broke the creatures wrist and took back the blade. Tanma jerked, gurgling as the sound of bone snapping echoed through the room.

Glancing down he realised that the Knight was human, or something close to it, and it's cock was slowly softening, it's chest and stomach streaked with white seed. It had orgasmed when Kylo broke its arm. Sneering he punched it in the eyesocket.

"Hypocrite," he gasped as he dragged himself up from the floor and huddled back into the bed.

The rest of his Knights were touching him now, pawing at his legs as they murmured and whined.

"Show us more."  
"So beautiful."  
"Elucidate."  
"More. More. More."  
"Who is he? What is he?"  
"Give us more."  
"You must, you must. Share with us."

Licking his lips Kylo shoved them all back with Force and reached deep into his mind to replay every encounter he'd found in the projections of the crew, every fornication and brutality, from snippet of thoughts to complete scenes he'd spied on as they'd happened. His Knights, once so pristine and perfect in the Force, took what he gave them and reenacted it, debauching themselves as Tanma Ren lay forgotten on the floor.

\-----

The search to Lor San Tekka dragged on. Kylo and his Knights returned to the Finalizer every few weeks to resupply and consult the First Order's databases. Hux banned the Knights from leaving the docking bay after their first return, finding that their presence reduced morale further than usual. Even then the control tower officers had to be placed on a shorter rotation than usual, reporting blinding headaches in addition to the Knights disconcerting focus. Thanisson in particular complained of the five masked creatures staring at him for hours each time he was on shift.

Kylo found himself dedicating as much time to rifling through the minds of the crew to keep his Knights entertained as he did to his task. All though he found plenty of new material in the minds of so many officer, Hux himself proved a little disappointing. It was far harder to memories that were not at the surface. While he only needed to walk the corridors during propaganda hour to find any number of reminiscing minds, the General rarely thought back on his encounters. Outside of a rare pre-sleep masturbation session Auren only thought about sex when he was actively engaged in it. In Kylo's absence Hux had continued to strike at lightly populated worlds, drawing them in with promises of prosperity if they aligned with the Order and pain if they did not, the progress of his terrible machine an ever present weight in his mind. He had more pressing matters to attend to than fantasies of carnal fulfilment.

By dint of poor planning on Kylo's part he found the Knights ship had often returned to the Finalizer at times that coincided with Commander Liet's fertility, limiting the variety of scenes he could gather. He watched anyway, eager for any new sensations he might gain for Hux' mind whilst still resenting the woman for the attention she received. His hatred grew with each visit and quickly spread to the other Knights. She was unworthy, she was not strong or even especially clever. She would be a taint in the Hux bloodline, an embarrassment.

Tanma Ren- who did not indulge with the others in their fascination for the General's crew- became something of a confidante for his Master. Listening as Kylo stalked around their ship in the early hours of the morning while he called down all kinds of pain and suffering on this interloper, cursed her name and each of her ancestors in turn. Whatever he said Tanma nodded and agreed.

Just over three months after the search for Lor San Tekka began the Knights ship suffered a system failure so severe that it was forced to return to the Finalizer for repairs only a week after it last departed.

The instant he stepped onto the bridge Kylo felt it. The Commander sat at her station in the crew pit so newly pregnant that she was totally unaware of it. Kylo felt his mind unravel into jealous, righteous rage, his tenuous grip on reality failing as he turned and stormed away from the bridge.

He left a trail of destruction in his wake across fourteen levels until Hux was forced to release the Knights from their quarantine to halt the destruction.

It was Tanma Ren who found him. Who clicked quiet words of reassurance and revenge into his ear as he coaxed him back to their ship. Who took him aside and showed him the ancient text he had found, just for him. An genuine book of paper and leather, so old that the name of it Sith author was lost even to legend. A book of terrible arcane rituals not seen in the Galaxy since Darth Plagueis made the child who would be Darth Vader from nothing but the Force.

Kylo stared then as his colleague recounted all he knew of Plagueis, of Vader, of the ways the Force could be manipulated to bend the universe to the will of any user in possession of enough strength. And who was the strongest Force user in the Galaxy after their dear Supreme Leader?

If he'd still had the physical ability to do so Tanma would have grinned as he flipped the book to the correct page- On The Creation Of New Life.

[Annihilate. Consume. Replace. Create. Perfect. Conquer.]

\-----

A month passed. Lor San Tekka was on Jakku. It was time to return to the Finalizer. Preparations had been made. The Ritual could begin.

\-----

Liet marched down the service corridor her heels clicking against the deck as she swore under her breath. There was a system malfunction again and that giant, blond idiot of a technician was once again failing to fix it. As she barged into the room she barely looked at the figure under the console. She certainly didn't notice the door sliding shut behind her.

"For pfassk sake Matt! This is the third radar station failure in this sector in a last week! What the hell is goin..." She faltered as the figure rose from the floor. "You're not Matt."

"No."

It advanced. She retreated.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Death. Yours specifically."

The room was painted in shades of red as the lightsaber blades crackled and thrummed into life. After a minute, or maybe two, it powered down again. The red remained.

\-----

Hux stalked into his private quarters, his nose buried in his pad as he read the latest progress reports from Starkiller Base. It was finished. All his hard work and years of toil were finally over. A shame they would have to detour past Jakku, but the inaugural firing could not be far off now. His blood pounded in his ears at the thought. 

He paused a moment, eyes fluttering closed and head tipped back as he envisioned it. Imagining the speech he would give to the galaxy, his free hand grazed lightly down the front of his uniform, brushing his cock just enough to drive a shudder through his frame. He'd have to practice. Yes. He'd enjoy that. Auren shook his shoulders and moved further into his rooms.

So engrossed was he in the thought of his success that he had stripped off his uniform jacket and removed one boot before he even noticed the naked man kneeling at the foot of the bed. He hadn't summoned anyone. He didn't even recognise this particular heavily muscled specimen, though he bore a close resemblance to a rather entertaining radar technician. That man was blond however, this one was brunette with brilliantly reflective hazel eyes.

Bending to remove the second boot Auren surreptitiously slipped his knife from its holster.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The man shrugged impossibly wide shoulders, a sardonic expression twisting his already unsettling features. How had Hux missed the arrival of so beautiful a creature on his ship.

"Do you not know me, General? I am Kylo Ren. As for what I want... I guess the short answer is 'you'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so short, a lot happens in the next one and it was getting unwieldy.


	4. Chapter 4

Hux laughed at the impertinence of the creature kneeling at his feet. _Kylo Ren?!_ As if _anyone_ would ever believe that under those horrible stinking robes and the ridiculous, melodramatic helmet there was a body like this. He moved closer, his empty hand catching the man beneath the chin. Slowly he eased him back so his centre of balance shifted forcing his core muscles to tense. Fine abdominals flexed at the movement, drawing Auren's eye down to thick thighs and the cock resting disappointingly flaccid in its thatch of black hair. 

This man had broken into his quarters, stripped and then knelt in submission for stars knew how long and he didn't even have the decency to be become aroused at the thought. And now he was telling bare faced lies. Licking his lips Hux decided the man's origins were less important than the opportunity to put him in his place. 

The hand still concealing the knife delivered a backhanded blow that drove the man sideways with a gasp. With a shift of his fingers Hux brought the hand back around, intending to deliver a shallow slice across the man's torso. The blade didn't not connect. 

Nothing connected. Hux found himself suspended mid-strike as the man unfolded from the floor. So this was the Force, was it? Watching the man warily he kept his breathing even and his muscles tense. He would be off balance when the hold on him was released. It would not do to fall without purpose.

"Do you believe me now, General?" Kylo asked as he stepped close enough to press his face against Auren's ear. With a fluid motion he slotted himself into the space created by Hux' upraised arm, the front of his naked body hot and solid through the thin material of his uniform undershirt. 

"That you're Kylo Ren?" Hux asked with difficulty. "No. You could been one of his Knights, impersonating him for your own gain."

Had he not been frozen in place he would have flinched as one improbably thick arm encircled his waist. As the man leaned back to look him in the eye he felt the twitch of his cock finally showing an interest where it was pressed against the wool of his jodhpurs. His own cock ached as blood tried to rush to it but was stopped by the Force holding him in place. He dreaded and anticipated the moment he would be released by turns.

"In the docking bay you deliberated looked at me and imagined the removal of one specific bottle from your greatcoat so that you might use it against your captor," the man who was Kylo Ren offered as proof. He gestured then with his free hand to the clothes piled unnoticed in the corner. "You may inspect my Knights if you wish, another time. Our armour is custom made, you will find that mine fits no one else."

"Your eyes." Hux said stupidly, frowning as he studied them. It hadn't been obvious when he'd been kneeling on the floor but now they were inches apart he could clearly see than the sclera were a vivid blue. "You're drugged."

"All part of the ritual, dear General," Kylo murmured, leaning in again to lick along the edge of Auren's collarbone where it was exposed by the cut of his undershirt. "I am still in possession of my faculties I promise you, just a little something to make things easier. I have never been so connected to the Force as I am right now."

Somewhere deep inside Hux bristled as Kylo brought his legs forward to better straddle one of his own, rutting with agonising slowness against the fabric of his uniform. His body on the other hand was singing at the sensations of the muscles pressing close to his skin. When had he last had a warrior like this? When had he last taken something made of such pure power? If he released him Hux would ruin him. He'd dreamed of fucking Kylo into oblivion when he'd seen nothing but his clothed form. Now he could think of almost nothing but painting these taut muscles with come and blood and the most beauty pain he could imagine. 

"Ritual?" He asked, his mouth prepared to ask the questions his mind was too overwhelmed to ask. 

"I've seen what you are capable of. I know what you could do to this galaxy if you were given the opportunity," Kylo said softly as he twisted to remove the knife from Auren's frozen hand, letting it clatter unregarded to the floor. "You have made a mistake, handed a task to the unworthy and it will be your undoing. I am here to rectify this. I can give you power to last generations, to keep your name known for as long as the stars burn. But first there are things that must be done."

Pressing tight against his front again Kylo sank his fingers into the neatly gelled lines of Hux' hair and released his hold on the Force at the same moment he forced his inexperienced tongue between his lips. Auren bit him. Not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to bruise and cause his tongue to retreat. Freed from that paralysing hold Hux' muscles continued their originally planned trajectory, the shift in balance driving them together to the floor. 

In a lightning quick movement Hux dropped his forearm over Ren's throat. 

"You wish to gift me power and yet you hold me captive? You invade my rooms, my privacy and my body, for what? Explain yourself, without resorting to your parlour tricks, or you get nothing." 

Ren bucked slightly under his weight but didn't fight. His eyes drifted for a moment, dreamy and unfocused before he looked Hux in the eye.

"The ritual has many parts. Most of them fall to me." He said with a servile smile. It looked alien on his face,as if he no longer knew how to properly expression emotions. "As for the rest. Several beings must die- one of each by both our hands. Someone who has stood in your way, someone who has betrayed your trust. You have a week to do it before the ritual kills you for noncompliance. Assuming of course that you complete the most important stage within the next two hours, or else we'll both be dead and nothing else will matter."

"What?" Hux snapped. Ice cold fingers of dread were crawling down his spine, contrasting with the burning heat of the muscles beneath his thighs. "What have you done?"

Kylo shrugged, his well defined shoulders far more eloquent than his face. "It matters not."

"I should kill you now." Hux hissed.

"Kill me, and the ritual goes unfinished, and you die. Resist too long, and you die. This happens or else you die. It's really so simple Hux."

Auren growled low in his throat, leaning forward to cut off the airflow through Ren's windpipe. Kylo smiled slightly, bring his hands up to pull Auren's undershirt free from his waistband, apparently uncaring as his lips began to turn blue. 

There was a pain in his chest, his lungs burning and refusing to move, his heart stuttering against his ribs. Hux drew back.

Kylo grinned to himself, casually unhooking the fastenings of Auren's fly. "You felt it then? Oncoming death? Beautiful, isn't it?" 

Hux released his hold on his throat and dropped his hands to catch the fingers pulling at the waistband of his boxers. "Stop this."

"No. Don't worry General, I can make this good for you. As good as I know you'll make it for me."

"What are you talking about now?"

One massive hand wrenched free of his grip and slipped easily into the back of his underwear. Fingertips pressed inexpertly against the cleft of his buttocks, seeking something Auren had no intention of allowing Ren to find.

"No. Absolutely not." He spat, his own hand reaching around to catch Kylo's wrist in a bone grinding grasp. 

"Then you die."

"You can't be seriously."

"Deadly. You must put your seed in me and I must return the favour, or we both die. But like I said, I can make it good." His other hand caught Auren's chin, forcing him to maintain eye contact as he poured someone else's memories into his mind.

Someone was splayed naked against a chilly bulkhead, alien sensations of cold lubricant and gloved fingers breaching his anus in a way that should have horrified him. This was a thing he did not do, had never allowed anyone to even contemplate the attempt. It was something he took great joy in dealing out to his subordinates as they begged for more. A voice spoke then and he realised he was inhabiting the body of Dopheld Mitaka. This was an encounter they had had early in their careers together. The first in fact. How had Ren found this? And in such detail that it was rendered so accurately that Hux felt it as if it were his own body?

"He thinks of it often," Kylo said, his deep voice drowning out Mitaka's garbled pleading speech. "When he can't sleep at night for worrying, or when the stress on the bridge becomes too much. This is what grounds him. Do you feel it? The head of your own beautiful cock pressing against his entrance? The flutter of anticipation?"

In the memory Hux felt the moment his cock had pressed into Mitaka, just the head enough to have the young Lieutenant coming with overstimulation. It was overwhelming. He felt himself drive forward, he felt himself hit the man's prostate as if it were his own. In the real world he came close to coming, a sudden phantom grip on the base of his cock stopping the sensation.

"I can make it feel like that." Kylo said softly.

"I thought your order were celibate? What do you know of all this to make such claims?" Hux panted, disgusted with himself that his now exposed cock was liberally drooling precome over the finely sculpted abs beneath him.

"We were, until you," Kylo said, his gaze shifting nervously away. "I haven't... I promised myself that you could... But I can feed you the memories of half the officers on this ship. I..." He shook his head as if to awaken himself and regain his grip on the chemical high he'd been enjoying. "We haven't time. Take me. Do whatever you please. Then either you let me fulfil my half of the ritual, or we both die. Either way I have what I want."

Hux stared at him, calculating, for a moment then surged to his feet. "On your hands and knees."

While Kylo scrambled to obey Auren strode to his dresser, dragging his undershirt over his head as he went. Lubricant in hand he turned to consider the body waiting for him as he wriggled out of the rest of his clothes. 

He stroked himself with slick fingers as he circled Kylo, admiring the muscle definition, the blush spreading across pale mole covered skin, the tremble of anticipation as he dropped the lubricant by the man's tense fingers. If he allowed Ren to do this to him he wouldn't not risk him doing it dry in his haste. 

Silently his foot nudged the knife across the floor, out of Ren's eyeline and towards his knees.

He allowed his own knees to hit the cold rubber tile of the floor with a thump that redoubled the anticipatory trembling in Kylo's limbs. His fingers went straight to Ren's hole, his free hand spreading the firm swell of his cheeks as he pressed firm slick circles into his flesh.

"You brought this to me as a demand," he said in his most lecturing tone, "not a request or a proposition. Do not expect the gentleness that rewards others for their good manners." One finger breached the ring of muscle and Kylo groaned. 

"Relax or it will go all the worse for you." He continued, twisting his finger a little too roughly into that velvet heat.

"I hope you'll remember your own advice, General," Kylo said through hitching gasps.

Growling with irritation Hux brought his free hand down in a bruising slap to Kylo's flank that forced his finger deeper.

"Shut up."

Returning his hand to the task of spreading Ren's cheeks he sneered to himself as he eased a second finger in alongside the first. As much as he wanted Kylo to suffer for bringing this ludicrous situation down on them both he couldn't bring himself to rush this. Not least because he didn't want Kylo to emulate him later. As he fell into the zen like mental state of proper preparation his mind wondered vaguely how real all this truly was, whether it was a genuine 'magic spell' or just the result of Kylo's delusions and his own strength in the Force. Neither mattered now, he was so close to his own personal victory over the Galaxy that he daren't lose it all on the off chance that this ritual actually killed him. What the hell did this fool actually intend to achieve?

Kylo moaned, bucking back against his hand and Hux suddenly became aware that he had three fingers stretched wide inside the whining man twitching feebly before him. He'd zoned out for longer than he'd realise.

Slipping his free hand around to grip Kylo's hip he shuffled forward to press the head of his cock along side the fingers he was slowly easing out of Ren's heat.

"Ready?" He asked, grinning maliciously at the back of Kylo's hair. As he opened his mouth to reply Auren snapped his hips forward, pushing the flared head throug in a single moment. Whatever Kylo had intended to say became a scream.

Leaning forward to drape himself over Kylo's back he reached up and tangled his lubricant slick fingers into the mass of long black hair. He tugged, a single vicious movement that made Ren's mouth snap shut and his hips jerk forcing Hux a little deeper. That drew out more whimpers from the man beneath him. 

Back muscles twitched beneath his lips as Hux dragged his teeth across them, alternating between a slow rocking of his hips and cruel pulls on Ren's hair. He relished the small noises that vibrated up though his chest each time the man fucked himself further onto his cock. Hux squeezed his hip one last time before he ran his fingers across Kylo's abs, deliberately avoiding his cock, before drifting upward to circle gently around one nipple.

He waited, keeping his thrusts light and slow until Kylo finally let out one long broken "please". Dragging back hard on Ren's hair he drove his hips forward brutally, sinking balls deep in a final single thrust. Kylo sobbed, his fingers scrabbling against the floor as he fought to adjust to the intrusion. 

Suddenly Hux twisted the nipple between his fingers as his scrapping teeth became an outright vicious bite. This time Kylo half shrieked into his own hand that had come up to cover his face, utterly incapable of processing the sensation, and thus losing his balance as Auren began a vicious rhythm that drove him face down against the tile.

He faltered for just a moment as Ren's passage clenched around him, warm seed splattering onto Auren's forearm as he continued to tease at his nipple. Pushing up away from Kylo's back he felt the twitch as he caught the man's prostate and redoubled his efforts. Arching his shoulders to better reach Ren's cock he caught him in a rough, tight slide, working counter to the rhythm of his own thrusts against his prostate to milk him dry. 

Kylo fingers slipped in his own seed as he fought to right himself, begging Hux to let go through broken cries of overstimulation. Tears were pouring down his face when he finally released his cock, though the speed of his thrusts remained unchanged. 

"You said I could do whatever I please, did you not?" Auren asked in a cold tone that would have warned a man paying closer attention to his surroundings. 

"Yes..." Kylo gasped in broken tones as Auren's hips abruptly stopped. "Yes, just, you have to come in me, please, just... Ah! No no no!!!"

Auren laughed, flicking the handle of his knife where it suddenly sat sunk barely an inch into Kylo's external oblique just above his hip. Snatching it out again he drove into into his flesh three more times at equal distances, then repeated the same on the other side.

"What are you doing?"

"Whatever I please." Dropping the knife back to the floor he wriggled his fingertips into the wounds as Kylo bucked and thrashed beneath him. "Let's call it 'gaining better leverage' shall we? Stay still or you get nothing and we both die." He hissed, barely even meaning it anymore.

The hot flow of blood seeping between his fingers had him so close he could taste it. Every ounce of frustration, every irritation he'd felt in the last five years bubbled the surface and he poured that rage into the body beneath him with a ferocity he wouldn't have dared inflict on a member of his crew. They were valuable to him, this wretched idiot was not.

Kylo shifted under him, freeing one hand whilst the other sank to take all his weight on one forearm. After a moment his fingers came up to swipe through the blood flowing down his sides before dropping to grip his own cock.

"I have to kill someone who stood in my way, right?" Hux asked through clenched teeth. Feeling his balls drawing up tight, he continued straight on without waiting for an answer, relishing the sound of his own voice. "Starkiller is going to end the lives of 46 billion sentient beings, including the wretched, treacherous Senate, do you think that will count?"

"The effect that'll have on the Force..." Kylo gasped, his head falling to rest on his forearm.

"What about it?" Hux asked, driving his nails deeper into the wounds as his hands tightened in anticipation of his orgasm. 

"It'll be catastrophic, every Force sensitive being in the galaxy will feel their pain as their own!" 

With a last snap of his hips Hux came at the image, dragging Kylo back by his bleeding sides to take as much of him as possible as he emptied himself into his velvety heat.

Abruptly Ren twisted, shoving him back and out, the last pulse of seed splashing across his side as he rolled onto his back. Huge hands slick with his own blood and come caught at Auren's hips to drag him forward, toppling his balance.

Eager fingers wound into his hair as he was pulled down into an awkward tooth-filled kiss. The other hand fumbled at Hux' legs, forcing him to straddle Kylo's hips before palming demandingly at his ass. Languid and still twitching from his release Hux relaxed back into his grip, groaning as Kylo somehow poured far too much lubricant along his cleft. 

The unfamiliar press of thick fingertips against the tight furl of muscle brought Auren back to himself. He opened his eyes as he tried to struggle away from Ren's grasp and found his gaze locked with almost mesmeric hazel eyes. 

Like falling into deep water his consciousness was dropped unceremoniously into a hundred mismatched stolen memories. His heart was soon hammering in his chest and his cock swelling back to full hardness almost uncomfortably quickly as his senses were assaulted by conflicting sensations. He barely noticed the slide of the first finger as it entered him, but the second had him gasping and writhing, too distracted to notice the burn of Ren's inexpert intrusion. 

With shocking suddenness Kylo replaced his fingers with his cock, dragging Hux down onto his length with a bruising grip on his thigh. The hold on on his hair tightened as Auren all but screamed against his mouth. More by luck that design Kylo had managed to hit his prostate on the first thrust, overwhelming the pain with pleasure. 

Hux dragged Kylo's hand off his thigh, pinning it over his head and rolling his hips to take control of the pace. He sighed heavily. This was far better than he'd expected. 

Frustrated, Kylo released his grip on Auren's hair, intending to regain control. Without breaking eye contact Hux caught that hand too. 

An errant memory, probably from Thanisson judging by the location, reminded him of a movement he'd particularly enjoyed. Auren emulated it, twisting his hips as he drove down. 

Kylo whimpered and bucked, demanding more. He didn't even notice the knife was back in Auren's hand until the thunk of it piercing the floor tiles vibrated through the back of his head. Glancing up at the sudden unexpected pain he saw the blade glittering where it pierced both his palms. 

Grinning Hux sat up, riding him, his own cock in one hand whilst the other fumbled for knife wounds under Ren's hip. Kylo glared at him, trying to flex his lower body without moving his hands.

Hux raised an eyebrow, slowing his pace until Kylo was muttering soft pleading words under his breath. 

"Say my name."

Kylo lifted his head. His eyes were wide, the pupils blown. A deep blush stained his cheek and deepened with every second they stared at one another. 

"What?"

"The memories you've shown, the common thread seemed to be that I allow the subjects to use my name." Hux said increasing his pace and dragging broken gasps from the man beneath him. "Is that what you want? To come with my name on your lips?"

"Yes," Kylo moaned, "yes General, I want to be the first to say your name as I come inside you."

"Say it then!" 

Kylo stared, his jaw slack as his orgasm built. Hux was beautiful then, his head thrown back, soft golden eyelashes brushing his cheeks as he fucked him down on the cock beneath him. 

"Auren! My emperor! My liege." Bracing his feet Kylo thrust up, dragging a keening wail from Hux as he came deep inside him. 

As his hips dropped back to the floor he realised Hux was leaning over him frantically working his fist over his cock.

"Say that again."

"All hail Emperor Auren Hux." 

With a hiss Hux jerked his hips forward, thick strands of white painting Kylo's face as he came. 

Smiling slightly Kylo licked his lips, sampling his taste with apparent enjoyment.

He glanced up at his own hands where they remained pinned to the floor.

"How did you know I could heal that with the Force?!" He asked, his eyes only hazel now, the last of the drug purged from his system. 

For a long moment the only reply he received was a raised eyebrow.

"I had no idea you could, how disappointing." Hux murmured, exhaustion creeping into his voice as he staggered to his feet. 

A pale pink mix of blood and come oozed slowly down the inside of his thighs. Kylo would need to heal that too, he couldn't leave the First Order's highest ranking officer wounded, not like this anyway. Not right now.

"Let me up and I'll show you." He said, watching Hux shuffle towards the bed.

"Not right now," Hux replied, turning to face him, "perhaps later."

"Wh..." Before he could complete the question Auren's foot connected with the side of his head, abruptly dropping him into the warm embrace of unconsciousness. 

Hux in turn collapsed across his bed and was instantly asleep.

Four hours later he awoke to find Kylo and his robes gone, only the ache in his body and the knife embedded in the blood and come encrusted floor suggested he had ever been there at all. 

Captain Phasma was at his door. A radar maintenance room had been destroyed. A few scattered body parts had been found, not enough to make up a whole person.

Remembering Kylo's task to kill two people Hux ordered a full analysis of all the remains to ensure that two deaths had not been disguised as one. If there had been a traitor onboard then Hux needed to know about it.

\-----

Dopheld stood shaking in the corridor in front of the bridge, desperately trying to get his breathing under control. The report on the remains had come back. He needed to deliver the information to General Hux. He didn't want to, in fact he'd have given anything not to be the one delivering this news.

The blast doors slid open to imit Colonel Datoo. Through the gap he saw the moment Hux noticed him and fought not to cringe away as they made eye contact. Resigned to his fate he hurried through before the doors could close again, narrowly avoiding getting his uniform caught between them. 

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

"The, the results are back from the uh... residue... in the radar maintenance room." Mitaka stuttered, adding a hurried, "Sir."

"And?" 

Hux had fixed him with a disconcerting focus, eyes unblinking and a little too wide. 

"Sir, the-they've tested all of it, like, like you asked and it... it's definitely Commander Liet, Sir. Mostly. There were scraps of multiple organs, Sir, not just blood." Mitaka stumbled on, his gaze fixed on a console at the far end of the bridge rather than on the General. Though he couldn't see him he could tell he'd gone very still. "They've said that given the range of elements and the she-sheer quantity of blood she wouldn't have survived, Sir. There... there was something else, Sir. A, a, a second genetic profile..."

"A second victim?" Hux said quietly, his voice strained. "So it was a cover up?"

Dopheld knew he was sweating noticeably now, his undershirt clung to his back and his face prickled uncomfortably. The data pad in his nervously twitching hands was in serious danger of snapping under the pressure of his grip.

"I... I don't think so, Sir, not... not as such," he said, dropping his volume. "It wasn't a profile held in our data banks so one of the lab techs took it upon himself to analyse it. There was very little of it, not enough to run the test twice, but it showed a maternal profile matching Iria Liet and a 99.98% paternal match with... with Auren Hux, Sir. I'm sorry, Sir."

Beside him Hux turned to face down the bridge, towards the forward viewports, the line of his jaw impossibly tense. He said nothing for several minutes. 

The Lieutenant loitered at his side, too scared to leave without an official dismissal. Focused as he was on his environment to avoid looking at his commanding officer, Dopheld became aware of the thin creaking noise only when it finally stopped, to be replaced by a steady drip. Glancing down he saw that Hux had tensed his fingers until the nails had driven through his gloves and into his palms. Blood was slowly pooling on the deck behind him.

"What is Kylo Ren's current location?" Hux asked, the words clipped and slightly trembling.

"His ship departed two hours before the ummm... situation was discovered, Sir." 

The speed with which the General turned his head made Mitaka's neck ache in sympathy, whilst the glare made his shoulders lift defensively. 

"When is he due to return?"

"The Knights of Ren have submitted no schedule, Sir, the details of their mission are known only to Supreme Leader Snoke." 

His left eye twitching Hux turned towards the main doors. "Dismissed Lieutenant. Commodore Dex, you have the conn."

He left, limping slightly, without another word.

Still shaking Mitaka turned to a passing Ensign and gestured to the blood smeared across the deck. "Summon a sanitation droid. Get that cleaned up."

\-----

Ren returned without his Knights during the sleep cycle, taking two transports worth of Stormtroopers away with him far faster than Auren could possibly have intercepted him. He hadn't actually tried. Snoke had communicated the significance of the information Lor San Tekka held. So Hux would have to content himself with fantasising about the precise method in which he intended to murder Kylo Ren. He'd have to save the actual act for the day when Luke Skywalker lay dead at the Knight's feet.

In their interactions he did his utmost to appear unchanged, keeping his thoughts well suppressed. Even when Ren violated the near-sacred space of his interrogation chamber Hux managed a forced smile at his fleeting success in gaining the necessary information. 

Fleeting because he'd left the prisoner physically capable of escape. He hadn't cared what happened once he had the single piece of information he'd sought and the urgency of Snoke's orders prevented Hux from taking the appropriate actions.

He thought of that often in the days to come. How he would have taken Poe Dameron apart if he'd had the chance. How he'd have peeled back each layer of information on the Resistance- their methods, their hiding spots, their secrets- and with every layer would come a corresponding application of pain. He'd have left the map's location to a midpoint in the proceedings, a minor droplet in a sea of betrayal, hardly noticed. He certainly wouldn't have left the man able to breathe, let alone able to pilot a TIE fighter and so begin the path to their destruction. Or able to pilot an X-wing and bring all of Auren's dreams down around his ears.

So many errors, so many failures, so little Hux could have done to stand in the way of this lunatic Force adept as he doomed them all. But if he'd just stepped forward then, not acquiesced to Ren's instructions but rather slipped his blade between his ribs... Then what? 

Whatever the demented ritual had actually entailed Ren had insisted that killing him would end them both. Perhaps then, at that moment when Dameron remained a prisoner, it might have been a better option for both of them to die and free the First Order from Ren's incompetence. Hux would have died but Starkiller would have survived, his machine would have stood as a promise of destruction to come and if it had still fallen Auren would not have been forced to witness it. 

He watched the attack on his beautiful machine with an empty, sickened heart. Prepared to go down with his masterpiece, ready to die with the keystone of his dreams. 

And then, something happened. 

He who had spent a lifetime studying the reactions of the human body did not possess the vocabulary to describe it. A brief piercing sensation through his chest, hot and then impossibility cold. Something alien reaching into the marrow of his bones; burning through the abused flesh still recovering from his encounter with Kylo Ren; gripping his heart, his brain, his lungs in impossible tension. 

He turned and walked out of the command centre. Once in the corridors he ran. Snoke gave him the order he somehow already knew he must receive. Ren had done something, changed something and so Auren found himself compelled to drag his shattered, bested carcass from a snowbank whilst his beloved machine tore out her own heart beneath his feet.

In the shuttle he turned his back to the viewports, unable to watch her final death throes, focusing only on the broken man before him. Face ruined, arm ruined, abdomen torn open and organs so very dangerously close to the surface. Kylo Ren was helpless and at the mercy of Auren Hux.

If the Knight received no analgesics, if his IV filled with stimulants to keep him conscious, if Hux leaned too hard or tore too roughly at the fabric clinging to his wounds, there was no one in this shuttle who would say a single word on the matter. 

Auren had his orders. The return to the Finalizer would be a short journey. Ren would be delivered to his Master soon enough. Snoke expected him alive, and probably something approaching whole. But Hux deserved to take his revenge all the same. He couldn't do all that he wanted, but it would satisfy him for now.

\-----

It wasn't enough. 

Kylo didn't suffer as he wished. He ranted in his delirium that he had killed the one who stood in his way and ended the father who had betrayed him for so long. He crowed to any who would listen that he had achieved his goals, though what those goals might have been was unclear. The crew who had lost so many comrades, lovers and family in the loss of the base were not inclined to listen. 

Hux abandoned his task unfulfilled. 

Instead Ren was delivered to medical and Auren gave the order to deliver them all to Snoke's questionable mercy. The journey gave him ample time to meditate on all that had been lost. And all that was still to be taken from him.

\-----

He watched the departing shuttle with empty eyes. Whatever Kylo Ren's foolish plan had actually been meant to achieve it wouldn't happen now. He'd gone to 'train' and wouldlikely never be seen again. This had been a debacle that would not be forgiven. 

He saw the movement reflected in the transparisteel at the edge of his vision, and so he didn't flinch a micron from his rigid parade rest when the muzzle of Phasma's blaster pressed against the base of his skull.

"General Auren Hux, you are under arrest." She said in a quiet voice that still brought the bridge to a standstill. "By order of Supreme Leader Snoke."

He waited a moment until the shuttle entered the odd little planet's atmosphere before he replied. "On what charge?"

"I'm not sure there has to be one, Sir," she said, her voice free of emotion or malice. "I'm afraid, Sir, that I will have to ask you to strip before you leave the bridge. It's the only way to be sure you aren't concealing any weaponry."

"One final humiliation, Captain? I would have thought we'd known each other long enough for you to trust me if I say I'm unarmed." Hux said, in a tired tone as he awkwardly striped off his greatcoat, the gaberwool still stained with the ashes of his life's work, and threw it to the floor.

"Is this a test, Sir?" Phasma said ironically as tunic and undershirt quickly followed, "I'd never believe anything of the kind."

Nodding in a satisfied way Hux striped out of his jodhpurs and boots in one movement, kicking them after the rest of his uniform. The pile of fabric soon vanished into the crew pit. Someone would tear it up and make a fortune selling the scraps as memorabilia. A small part of him hoped the contents of his pockets would at least go to those who knew how to use them. It was a collection that had been a decade in the making. Such a waste.

"May I ask where I am to be taken?" Hux asked, turning to face her with perfect posture, unabashed by his nudity despite his reference to humiliation. 

"Your execution is due to take place on Home World, Sir."

From somewhere across the bridge came a muffled sob. No one moved, unwilling to acknowledge what might now be judged a treasonous attachment. 

Well it was to be expected. He was a dead man walking the instant the oscillator had collapsed. Nevermind that the infiltrators entry through the planet's shields at such speeds had been a mathematical impossibility. Or that someone on staff had then dropped the shields for the Resistance ships. They were likely dead already, and someone had to be made an example to the rest. 

That someone would be him.

With another nod Hux waved a languid hand in a 'lead on' gesture. Surrounded by his own stormtroopers he left the silent bridge, chin held high.


	5. Chapter 5

19,000 officers. 55,000 personnel. 8,000 stormtroopers. Minus the losses on Starkiller of course. Either way one solitary naked General with a price on his head would not have the odds in his favour, no matter how well he knew his flagship.

So he waited.

It didn't take long. The Finalizer was needed elsewhere, so Hux was moved to a prisoner transport with a guard compliment of just twenty. Far better odds. Especially since he'd had a hand in the design of this particular class of ship back at the academy. It had been a way of cutting his teeth before he moved on to the larger scale projects, like his beloved Resurgent-class Star Destroyers and Starkiller Base. How convenient to be held captive on a ship he'd practically built.

They'd given him clothes now that they felt confident he wasn't a threat. Not the standard issue orange overalls that were usually assigned to prisoners but rather a dignified two piece set in deep grey. Apparently he should go to his execution in clothes that befit his station. If he survived this he would ensure no one under his command ever made the same mistake.

Not only did the dark colour aid him in hiding in the shadows of his cell once he'd shorted out the lights, but the trousers had a drawstring waist. Or rather the trousers held a handy garrotte with which to kill the guard.

Now he had a blaster and free run of the ship.

It was depressingly easy to take out the rest of the Stormtroopers. They were rattled by the defeat of the superweapon and confused by the arrest of the man they'd be psychologically conditioned to see as something approaching a father. Three of them actually knelt and asked him to kill them.

On the one hand he was pleased that his troops answered more readily to him than they did to Snoke. On the other they should have been more resilient. No wonder the scavenger and her allies had escaped so easily each time.

There were only the pilots left to remove and then he'd be able to take the ship. He had no concrete plans yet for his next step. Head for some insalubrious smugglers trading post. Black his hair with one of the troopers leather maintenance kits. Obtain a new ship. Then... He didn't know. First things first- the pilots. He entered the cockpit.

Phasma's fist connected with his jaw like a blow from an iron bar. He hadn't expected her to be onboard. He'd seen not a single trace of her as he'd slaughtered her stormtroopers and yet here she was now like a glittering angel of death. She was taller than him, stronger than him, and whilst he had speed and mobility in his favour the enclosed space limited his options. He hadn't the opportunity to change the settings on his stolen blaster to ensure it wouldn't punch a hole in the hull. He was in no position to use the garrotte. He could only defend himself from the rain of blows, feeling her gauntlets crack his ribs and his fingers. All other choices lost he made one last ditch effort to overbalance her by charging at her. It failed. With one powerful shove his head connected with a console, knocking him unconscious.

When he next awoke he was naked again, his wrists and ankles locked in heavy binders. Back to square one.

\-----

He'd done it. He'd done it, just like Tanma Ren had told him!

He'd killed that worthless bitch. He'd eaten her heart and pieces of her other organs like the ritual said he must if he were to carry new life. He'd lain with Hux within the necessary window.

But then the scavenger had happened and all had almost been lost.

Only for Han Solo to trail in her wake and directly into Kylo's path. It had been so easy to play the frightened, faltering son. To beg for help and end the smugglers life when he offered what was asked of him.

How pathetic that the man who had betrayed him so badly as a child could ever believe that Kylo would want a reconciliation now.

He'd felt the power of the Force surge through him even as Chewbacca left him wounded and unable to best the scavenger. She'd have made a fine Knight, a wonderful addition to his forces. But that was not to be.

He knew Hux was coming for him longer before he saw him. He could feel him, like a second set of limbs, growing clearer as he approached but still somehow wrong, out of sync. Kylo assumed this was just a symptom of what he'd done, something he would have to become accustomed to over time. Or perhaps it was just the affect of the other man's rage.

Of course he was angry at the loss of his machine. He was still so tied to the mundane material plane. He didn't understand the importance of what they'd done. Kylo had tried to explain but Hux hadn't wanted to listen. Had been too busy taking out his frustration on Kylo's person. But he'd explain. Once he returned from his Master.

Snoke would be pleased Kylo knew. He'd be so happy that his apprentice had finally surpassed him.

\-----

There had been no further opportunities to escape. Phasma had stayed with him, ensuring he could not speak to any of the guards alone and use their conditioning to his advantage. Once they'd arrived at Home World she'd drugged him with twice the recommended tranquilliser dosage for a man his size, determined to keep him subdued. It had been all he could do to sit in his cell without drooling on himself whilst he waited for the effects to wear off.

They'd dressed him again, this time in a white overall made of some material he couldn't even rip with his teeth. Beyond using the legs as a makeshift noose there was little he could do with them. Besides the cell was featureless, there was nothing he could hang himself from even if he wanted to do so.

Auren had no wish to die. There would be another chance to live, if he waited long enough. Someone always made a mistake.

\-----

Phasma kicked his feet out from beneath him, forcing him to his knees in the dust. As she affixed his chains to the tall metal post behind him Hux took to chance to assess the situation. He was in the centre of an amphitheatre, the tiered seats filled with members of the First Order High Command and other influential members of their society. It was a veritable Who's Who of people that would benefit directly from his death. There was no one here who would willingly help him, no one to side with him. He'd been useful to the Order, a figurehead who commanded great loyalty in his troops but these were not his troops. Idly he imagined the benefits to his former career if he could have just arranged for a tactical airstrike on this particular gathering. There was little such dreams would do him now.

A door opened. Seven figures exited, dressed in uniforms that closely resembled the old Imperial Death Trooper black armour. They were carrying antique weapons, far predating the Empire. Primitive planetary weapons that fired ballistic rounds rather than the energy weapons that were more common in space faring societies. Auren had used one once at the Arkanis Academy, his father had insisted. The sight of flesh tearing apart around an explosive lump of metal was one of the few memories that had stayed with him from the first few years of his life. The carnage of rout of Arkanis had overwritten so much of the brutality, but not that one specific image. So that was how he would die. It lacked elegance. At least it would be somewhat memorable.

As the Death Troopers arranged themselves in a line in front of him a holographic display flickered into life behind them. Snoke stood huge and formidable, his gaunt frame rendered at a scale that had him towering over Captain Phasma when she approached to confirm that Auren was secure.

Tattered robes flowed around his feet as he raised his arms and fixed Hux with a baleful glare. "Auren Hux, former General in Chief of the First Order, you know why you are here."

Climbing awkwardly to his feet against the chains holding him to the post Hux raised his chin and met the Supreme Leader's eye with distain in his heart. He would no longer bow and scrape to the megalomaniac before him. He was the single most talented resource the Order had at its disposal; if Snoke would throw him to a firing squad over a defeat that was entirely the fault of his own apprentice then he was in no way worthy of Auren's continued respect.

"Supreme Leader," Hux began, straightening his shoulders to settle into his customary parade rest, the binders on his wrists cutting into his flesh as he linked his hands where they were chained behind his back. "The loss of Starkiller Base was regrettable but it was not the only weapon in our armoury, the Republic lies in ruins, now would be the ideal time to..."

"GENERAL!" Snoke roared. Behind him the amphitheatre's occupants recoiled in terror as the audio system shrieked at the sudden change in volume. Auren merely sneered, his teeth exposed in disgust at the other creature's theatrics.

"You violated my apprentice!"

What? Auren's mind skidded to a halt as Phasma returned and knocked him back down. Had Snoke actually said that? All of this, this ridiculous performance, him kneeling in the dust in front of an actual, honest to the Void, firing squad about to have his brain matter scattered to the four winds, was over him FUCKING Ren?! Or him allowing Ren to fuck him. Exactly what the alien meant was unclear as he continued to drone on using words like sullied, defiled and besmirched, his twisted horrible mouth spraying spittle as he became more irate.

Hux wasn't listening any more. He was too angry. He'd killed billions. In the name of the First Order and thus its shadowy leader he had laid waste to an entire system, had ripped apart a star with the product of his mind. He was a giant in the cosmos, a veritable god. And here he knelt. Awaiting death. Not because Starkiller had failed in a series of nearly impossible catastrophies, but because he'd engaged in carnal activities with Kylo pfassking Ren.

As if thinking the name had summoned him, Kylo was dragged into the holo's projection field. Surprisingly, Snoke actually was a giant, standing almost twice Ren's height. That was unexpected. Auren had always assumed the foolishness in the audience chamber was an intimidation tactic. That they were forced to look up at that hazy figure as a power play rather than a reality. And yet here he stood, throwing a suddenly insignificant looking Kylo Ren about like a rag doll, one humungous fist twisted into his apprentice's matted hair.

Ren's scalp was bleeding, the hair being torn out by the roots as he struggled to keep his bare feet on the floor to take some of his weight. Whilst Auren had been permitted his white overalls Kylo was utterly naked. His wounds were not as bad as Hux had first imagined when he'd found him in the snow. Or else he'd been healed somehow. The cut to his face and the charred wound in his abdomen had a ground meat quality to them- they looked spongy and wrong, but they were no longer actively bleeding despite Snoke's rough treatment. Watching closely Hux could still see the evidence of their encounter on his skin, the knife wounds along his sides and through his hands were barely even pink anymore. They were a few days old and yet they were mostly healed. Something wasn't right.

The only freely flowing blood on Kylo's grime smeared body came from what looked like regularly spaced stab wounds along his lower belly and the creases at the back of his thighs. Hauling the human several feet up into the air by his hair Snoke waved him towards Hux and the watching crowd. Twisting like an angry feline Ren tried to bring his bound hands up to grab the creatures wrist and support his own weight. He'd almost gained purchase when Snoke jabbed a long gnarled finger into one of the wounds, rotating it into Kylo's abdomen as he shrieked. Blood and globs of torn tissue cascaded down Ren's front, obscuring his genitals in a sheet of red.

"You sought to replace me, to change the fate of the Galaxy that I have worked towards for millennia, by combining your own worthless genes in the body of this degenerate whore." Snoke spat, his voice near hysterical now as he withdrew the digit and drove it into another wound. "There will be no offspring of Hux and Ren, there will be nothing, there will not even be a MEMORY OF EITHER OF YOU!!"

As Snoke roared Hux glanced around at the confused onlookers. Had he lost his mind or had the Supreme Leader genuinely accused him of trying to impregnate Kylo REN. Of course the Supreme Leader wasn't actually human- could he really have such a shaky of their species' breeding process? Surely it was a simple matter of correcting him...

Unless. Hux stared at Kylo where he twisted and twitched. What precisely had the ritual he'd referred to been intended to achieve? He'd murdered Commander Liet. And with her Auren's son. He couldn't actually be that stupid could he?! He met the Knight's defiant eyes. Of course he could.

As Snoke continued his assault Kylo's abdomen was torn open, entrails exposed and oozing out of their cavity as he fought to free himself, apparently oblivious to the pain. There was only the normal compliment of organs there, everything Hux would have expected to find given what he knew about Ren. No mysterious Force-formed womb sitting incongruous amongst his intestines.The man had been delusional, just as Hux had suspected. All of this utter farce because Kylo Ren had genuinely believed that his ridiculous magic could change the basis of biology without any surgical intervention. Hux was about to be killed, and Kylo was now literally being torn apart, all because he'd put his faith in fairy stories.

Auren lost focus on Kylo then as somewhere behind him, up in the stands, screams began to echo and spread. Spectators streamed down the steps, climbing over one another to escape some unseen threat. Turning away from the gory marionette performance Hux contorted his back to try and spot the source of the panic.

In front of him one of the troopers assigned to the firing squad suddenly spasmed in fright, his fingers closing on the trigger.

Auren's left eye socket shattered. The eye itself was obliterated as the projectile continued through his brain at an angle, tearing away the opposite side of his skull as it exited. The remaining eye saw his own ear and the tattered scraps of his scalp hit the ground a second before he joined them face down in the dust, a spreading pool of blood and brain matter around him.

The pain was indescribable. Not least because his brain was all over the ground. There was no mind there to do the thinking. Or at least there should not have been. Hux stared at the dust an inch from his face, barely even registering the creeping red of his own life blood spreading across the brown earth.

This wasn't how he'd planned to die. He'd always expected to leave this existence on the bridge of a Star Destroyer in a decaying orbit. He'd hoped to simply fall from his throne at an advanced age having heralded the return of the glory days of the Empire. He'd even considered going out strapped to his own interrogation chair, teaching his replacement all that he'd learned.

He'd never expected to die in the dirt, the casualty of a misfire.

He's also never expected it to take so long.

The pain in his ruined eyesocket flared as a sensation of pressure slowly built.

Somewhere in the distance, muffled by the ringing in his remaining ear, Hux heard Snoke screaming orders at someone. Demanding that action be taken against whatever had caused the disturbance. Beneath the alien's voice he could just hear another, shrieking his name, the sounds broken up by sobs and entreaties and inconsolable wailing. Auren couldn't bring himself to care.

Abruptly the pressure crested and burst. The noise he made was inhuman, a ruined wet gargling scream as he reared back up onto his knees and stared at the gathered soldiers. His depth perception was restored. Somehow his eye was not gone any more.

There wasn't time to think about this development as the terrified soldiers opened fire simultaneously. Their antique weapons had not been fully loaded, each one given only three projectiles. But they were the First Order's elite- every projectile hit its mark. Hux fell back this time, rolling to turn his spine and the arms tied behind him towards the volley. In excruciating detail he felt the splinter of his bones and tear of his organs as they disintegrated. The weakness of his poorly repaired shoulder unexpected proved useful as the joint burst apart, finally letting go of the arm he'd almost lost so many years ago.

Using what strength he could muster through the pain, Auren rolled onto his front, leaving the severed arm to dangle from the other intact wrist. Again the horrible sensation of pressure built in his shoulder, his chest cavity, his pelvis, his thigh. This time he gritted his teeth until he could feel the enamel cracking to keep from making another undignified noise. He wanted to pant or gasp, something to draw more oxygen into his system but his lungs were perforated in a dozen different places, it would be a futile effort.

From his position with his face turned to the left he could just see waving fronds of muscle and skin growing from his shoulder like water plants caught in a whirlpool. The nerves wound through them like tree roots, every new connection searing through his brain, raw and exposed.

It was hell.

It was heaven.

He should have died here, a pathetic ignoble death and yet he resisted. Like his beloved Empire, torn apart first by the Rebels and then the Resistance, he would endure.

Kylo was still sobbing.

The severed arm- still dangling uselessly from the restraints that no longer secured him to the post- almost over balanced him when he rolled awkwardly to his feet. Hux tore it free with his still forming new hand, flinging it aside like so much worthless carrion as he turned to face the Supreme Leader and his captive.

Ren hung in the giant's hand like a puppet with its strings cut. His skin was a deathly grey while the organs trailing from his abdomen were pale with bloodloss. His lips were barely moving with his quiet, nonsensical pleas.

"Vengeance." Kylo mouthed. "The betrayer. Take your revenge on the one who failed you."

For the second time in three days Phasma's blaster made contact with the back of his head. Hux staggered but did not fall. Undeterred she twisted the blaster in her grasp and fired point blank against his chest.

The energy discharge tore through him, bringing his heart to a stuttering halt. Raising one sardonic eyebrow, Auren looked down towards his own chest. The grin that split his face was a monstrous thing as he turned his eyes back to his former second in command.

"Phasma?" He said quietly, hardly affected by the pain of his heart repairing itself this time. "Who turned off Starkiller's shields?"

She fired again. He advanced.

Behind her he recognised the grid patterned helmet of one of the Knights of Ren. Glancing around the crowd he soon spotted four more indiscriminately slaughtering First Order personnel and audience members alike. The only Knight not present was the one with the skull-like helmet. Had Snoke's actions finally driven them to choose between their master and their overlord?

Sensing his gaze the grid Knight nodded towards Hux and threw him a short stick. It took Auren a moment to recognise it as a lightsaber. Somehow, despite his fervent disbelief in the occult elements of the Force, it felt almost sacrilegious as he thumbed the switch to ignite the orange blade. It was far shorter than Ren's- more a baton than a sword- but it would do.

"Phasma, who turned off the shields?" He asked again.

She had stopped firing, the gun held slack in disbelieving fingers. A moment later it dropped into the dust at her feet. Slowly she lifted her fingers to the seams of her helmet and clicked it free. Her gaze was calm, her blue eyes clear and unafraid as she met his own.

"I did, General."

"Thank you, Captain."

His hand swung through the space between them. The drag of the energy blade through the air was like nothing he'd ever felt before, the smooth parting of flesh and bone and muscle sent waves of pleasure through his core even as he regretted the lose of a once fine officer. He could see now why kylo favoured his saber despite its faults. To wield a lightsaber was to hold a unique and terrible power. Hux had no intention of ever giving it back.

The sound system emitted a static shriek as Kylo howled, the same horrifying inhuman noise Hux had made as his skull reformed. Turning he saw the ashen figure hanging limp in Snoke's grip abruptly seize as if electrified. Ruined organs slopped disgustingly from his abdominal cavity as new ones formed to take their place. His skin hadn't even closed before he twisted to catch Snoke's monstrous throat in a powerful Force grip.

Around Auren the fighting stuttered to a halt as everyone stared at the spectacle of the giant fighting his suddenly reanimated apprentice. Where before the creature had tormented Kylo with his bare hands now they grappled together by will of the Force alone.

Ren seemed to be fighting one handed, the other closing into a fist with glacial slowness. One of Snoke's eyes twitched as he struggled to gain purchase against his attacker. It spasmed and rolled in its socket, becoming increasingly bloodshot with each passing moment. Suddenly blood poured down the sides of his face from the approximate region of his ears. Kylo was crushing his skull and Snoke seemed helpless to stop him.

The giant's limbs became increasingly uncoordinated, flailing and spasming towards the staggering figure of Kylo Ren. The bloodshot eye burst, thick viscous fluid adding to the mixture of blood and sweat pouring down Snoke's face.

Abruptly Kylo collapsed to his knees, his fist finally closing completely. Beside him the Supreme Leader's body imploded, crushed inward by the suddenly unopposed pressure as Snoke died and lost his grip on the Force.

Out of barely ten minutes of unrelenting horror that final shower of gore and ichor was perhaps the most viscerally disturbing moment of all. Snoke, the First Order's Supreme Leader for the last three decades was gone, slaughtered at the hands of his own studen. For the first time in thirty years they were adrift and leaderless. Their former General in Chief had survived a firing squad. Half the high command and social elite lay dead at the feet of Kylo's Knights. Who had precedence here? Who ruled?

Through the holo projection Kylo met Auren's eye. They were both filthy, exhausted and confused. But they were alive.

Kylo reached out one shuddering, blood smeared hand. "Long live Emperor Hux."

The hologram snapped off.

In the amphitheatre all hell broke loose.

\-----

Beyond the viewports the Galaxy glittered, its stars ancient and- to mortal eyes at least- unchanging. Below them Coruscant lay in smouldering defeat, the last hold out of the doomed Republic safely in Order hands at last.

Two years had passed since Kylo had insolently handed Auren the title he would soon officially embrace.

If the Force user had believed that the First Order would accept a new commander on his word alone then he had been much mistaken. It had taken Hux weeks to seize control of Home World with the aid of Kylo's five remaining Knights. Indeed it had only been when Kylo himself had joined them that the last survivors of high command began to realise the impossibility of fighting two apparently indestructible beings.

Hux had resented the ground lost with the anti-Republican cause almost as much as he'd hated the lack of faith in himself as leader. For a time he had despaired at the failure of his previously loyal and carefully placed officers to come to his aid. That was until he'd discovered that the planetary command had shut off communications with the fleet. Not one of his officers had known of his survival. The failed execution had not been broadcast. Snoke's death was a secret. And Kylo had not thought to communicate with them himself before he joined the fray.

Of all his officers it was Mitaka who received the half scrambled message Auren managed to send despite heavy enemy fire. The planetary communications array had been rendered useless after less than a minute- Hux had received no confirmation of receipt or hint that anyone would come to his aid.

He need not have worried.

It was also Mitaka who, despite his mere Lieutenant's rank, had rallied the Finalizer and from there the rest of the fleet. Within three days the sun had been  blotted out by the sheer mass of vessels hanging in orbit.

Hux had snatched control then, not as Emperor but rather as Supreme Leader. He would not rule half an Empire. Meanwhile Kylo had taken a place, entirely unbidden, at Auren's side, styling himself as "Lord Protector" with his Knights behind them both.

The civil war was conceded and, united once more, the First Order had turned its attentions to the rest of the Galaxy.

Very little had stood in their way.

The Resistance had tried and failed. Their meagre support had soon melted away- for every planet that fell to Auren's martial prowess four more preemptively surrendered to his control. Without the Republic's fleet the Resistance were outgunned. Demoralising rumours soon spread about the First Order's leaders, splintering the ranks still further.

Rey had stood firm and confident before her cousin. She'd even managed to run him through. It did her no good. She died with the traitor FN2187 and Organa's best pilot at the her side.

Luke Skywalker felled his nephew with a blow that should have killed the larger man. It merely disembowelled him and barely hindered his approach. No mortal remains were ever found for the last of the Jedi, but the Force mourned him all the same.

Leia simply collapsed suddenly bereft of life. Some said she died of a broken heart, other said that Kylo Ren did not have the strength of hate to end her life with his own bare hands. If he had wept in the Supreme Leader's quarters that night Auren would never speak a word of it.

And now here they stood, victorious at last.

The war was over, the dust would finally have a chance to settle, now there would be time to talk.

As the fires of Coruscant burned below him Hux turn to survey his ship. Or rather General Mitaka's ship. The Finalizer was unchanged, the same fine beautiful ship she had been when he'd first guided her out of the Kuat-Entralla shipyards as a newly minted Lieutenant General and tomorrow he would leave her as the self declared Emperor of the Galaxy.

They were alone in the observation lounge above the bridge, huge viewports providing them with an unrivalled view of the stars, barring the smouldering debris of the battle that shimmered against the shields. Kylo waited patiently at Auren side, his posture rigid and clearly anticipating the words that were to come.

Much like the ship Ren was little changed, just as fanatical has he had been when he'd first boarded the ship- only the focus of his fanaticism had changed. At least that would work in Hux' favour.

"Well, my 'Lord Protector'," Auren began, his eyes fixed firmly on the viewports. "The Galaxy lies at our feet, I believe the time you promised has finally arrived. So, tell me... What are we?"

The reply was flat. Emotionless. "I don't know."

"How can you not know?"

"I had hoped to have found him by now, or that he would realise his mistake and return to us."

"Your missing Knight?" Hux asked, already knowing the answer. Kylo had obsessed over the loss of that one ally more than the entire progress of their cause. "He did this?"

"He showed me the ritual, yes."

"Did you even read it?"

"In so far as I could."

Auren sighed, one hand rubbing across his eyes in frustration whilst the other twisted in its glove behind his back, quietly freeing his baton from its holster. He never had returned the lightsaber he'd been given in the amphitheatre.

"What has happened is clearly not what you intended. Have you any idea of the long term consequences?" He asked, moving closer to the other man as he finally turned to look at him. "Will we still age? Indestructible at two hundred years old- unable to stand but still unable to die?"

"I don't know." Kylo shrugged. "I haven't noticed any aging or any new scars forming since Starkiller." He traced his fingers over the faint silvery line across his face. "But it has only been two years, Auren, we shall have to see what the future holds."

Smiling slightly he stepped fully into the would-be Emperor's space, his boots bracketing Hux' own while the front of his surcoat brushed across the smaller man's slim chest. He licked his lips.

"We are unique in the universe now, you and I." He said softly, leaning his head down towards Auren's ear. "I have given the Galaxy the gift of a worthy master to rule it, and I have given you the gift of eternal life. Or at least immunity from death. Do I not deserve a reward?"

"Hmmm yes..." Hux agreed with hooded eyes. His face turned so their lips were only millimetres apart. "Without you I would not be here. Without you I would be on Starkiller, I would still _have_ Starkiller and the Galaxy would have been kneeling before me years ago. I did not ask for this Kylo, I did not want this, but as long as I have it I will do my best to understand it and use it to my advantage. Starting with your 'reward'."

Kylo twitched, his head dropping forward to rest almost companionably on Auren's shoulder as his legs gave way. Hux ran his fingers soothingly over Kylo's hair as he whimpered.

Leaning up on his toes Auren could just catch a glimpse of the soft orange glow of his lightsaber baton where it protruded though Kylo's robes. The fool had discarded his former armour after the death of Snoke, declaring it to be a hinderance to his agility. He did look better like this, finely sculpted muscles hinted at by the fine linen rather than hidden. But it offered him no protection. 

Sighing against Kylo's soft curls Auren smiled as he flexed the fist currently buried to the wrist in his Lord Protector's abdomen. He regretted the choice to wear gloves, he was missing the wet slide of warm viscera over his knuckles but still suffering the slow ooze of internal fluids over his cuff. Next time he would keep his hands bare. Perhaps more than his hands.

"Hux," Kylo wheezed against his throat, "you can't kill me. My spine will begin to re-form as soon as you remove the blade, you know that."

"Oh yes, I know. But when will I remove it Kylo? Hmm? How long can you stand it?" Hux paused to press a kiss to one sweat soaked temple. "And will that make any difference? How many times can I severe your spine between these two particular vertebrae and still get the same result? How much damage can you take? Are we impervious to fire, to acid, to the vacuum of space? How many limbs can I take off you? If I decapitate you which part will regenerate? So many questions. And such a beautiful subject to seek answers with."

Turning his head Auren kissed Kylo's trembling lips. "We have forever, you and I, should we not make a productive use of our time?"

The answer was sigh. "Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, my Emperor."


End file.
